BotW: Amazon joins the fight for video ad dollars; a damp election ...
Welcome to Best of the Week, kicked off on QF1563 home to Tassie and wrapped up this morning on a bright, chilly morning in Evandale. Today: Here comes Amazon (and Paramount); how not to run an election campaign; end of the Adams era at RN; and (as we often seem to be saying) the Unmade Index hits a new low. Happy Geek Pride Day.
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Amazon's Entry into the Australian Market
On Wednesday, another piece fell into place on the evolution of the local TV market. Amazon’s Prime Video revealed it will launch its advertising tier in Australia in five weeks time, on July 2. With an Amazon subscription in around 5m (of Australia’s 9.3m) households, that’s not dissimilar reach to a metro free-to-air network, even if the number of average minutes consumed is likely far less.
What was interesting about the message to consumers is that although there is an ad-free option for $2.99 per month, that was downplayed. The sense is that Amazon’s strategy is about offering a large, logged-in audience to advertisers as the primary video revenue stream. It’s a direct assault on its free-to-air rivals. Prime positions its ad tier to customers as having “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV”.
The Prime launch will come a matter of days after Paramount Plus kicks off its $6.99 local ad tier next month. That’s two giants head-to-head: The retail media network of Amazon, plus its video offering is a significant new 800lb gorilla in the jungle. Paramount’s advertising suite across Paramount Plus, along with Tenplay, the Pluto-powered channels and free-to-air via Ten is the only place in the market offering all the acronyms - BVOD, SVOD, FAST and free-to-air - in one place.
A Damp Election Campaign in the UK
A general election campaign got underway in the UK this week. Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a snap election for July 4. It’s a wonderful object lesson in how not to do political communications. Sunak made his Downing Street announcement while rain hammered down. The image of Sunak trudging away form his lectern and into the door of Number 10 will follow him for the rest of his career.
Changes at Radio National and the Unmade Index
Speaking of cloned DNA, the ABC finally announced one of its key generational transitions this week, with 84-year-old Phillip Adams being replaced by 76-year-old David Marr on Radio National’s Late Night Live.
The Unmade Index lost more ground on Friday, dropping 0.33% to 505.4 points. The index - which tracks the movement of Australia’s listed media and marketing stocks - is now running at its lowest point since we launched it at the beginning of 2022 on a 1000-point opening.
Time to leave you to your weekend. If you haven’t already had enough of me, please listen to an interview I recorded as a guest on futurist Tim Burrowes' podcast.
