Bruce Springsteen - what if you had 700 Channels?

There’s that Bruce Springsteen song about there being 57 Channels and nothings on. What if he had 700 channels to choose from?

His problems may be solved by Samsung, with the South Korean company claiming to be the top FAST service in the US with 700 channels on offer.

Here in Australia, there is 144 channels available, which is good… but 700 is obviously better. Globally, Samsung TV Plus streams over 3,500 channels across 30 countries with a total of 630 million active devices.

Note that it is devices listed - Samsung TV Plus is pretty much available on any new Samsung product with a screen (including some of the higher end smart fridges). I have a Samsung computer monitor which also has some smart functionality and has access to the service.

A key FAST market advantage Samsung has is that it controls the user experience entirely with its FAST channels baked into the operating system on TVs. It means users can flip seamlessly from broadcast TV channels into streamed FAST channels with the up/down on their remote control - there’s no entering an app.

While it is no surprise that total viewing is on the rise thanks to an increase in the volume of channels, Samsung TV Plus also says engagement jumped 30% year-over-year in the first quarter. Along with live linear channels, the company has increased the number of shows and movies in its library by 70%.

Samsung is talking up engagement on FAST now ahead of an IAB NewFronts presentation in May where it will make its pitch to advertisers.

I’m going to be interested in what Samsung is reporting a year from now. Operating free streaming TV in a market about to enter a recession should lift engagement for the service. But, how big an impact would the recession have? It could reveal a ceiling to FAST growth in the US.

Read more: Deadline

Oh… and just one more thing… if anyone can advise me on how I can get my Australian Samsung device to access the US service, could you let me know? The obvious ways to me just aren’t working…

---

Netflix earnings

In an earnings call today, Netflix reported $10.5 billion in revenue - up from a year ago and beat Wall Street forecasts. In the call, co-CEO Greg Peters said that he wasn’t concerned about a global economic downturn:

Peters said he and Sarandos “take some comfort … that entertainment historically has been pretty resilient in tougher economic times.” And you can pretty much double that for Netflix, he said, which Sarandos called “a tremendous value in absolute terms and certainly in competitive terms.”

This is the first report not to include subscriber numbers, which had been signalled some time ago by the streamer. Because it now turns a profit, there’s less of a need to juice it with subscriber numbers, which don’t reflect a consistent revenue per subscriber.

Read: THR

Related:

Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are now both being paid more than $60m each. Ted wouldn’t be making that sort of money at Disney if he took the CEO gig there (as rumoured)… Read: Variety

---

News Desk

• A sequel to Clueless is in development as a TV series at Peacock. Alicia Silverstone will reprise the role of Cher. Read: Variety

• A Pacific Rim TV show is in development for Amazon Prime Video. Read: THR

• Once Ryan Coogler finishes up the Sinners promotional campaign, he’s moving onto his The X-Files revival. You can see him talking about it on The Last Podcast on The Left:

• Joel Kinnaman is joining Apple TV+ show Imperfect Women alongside Elisabeth Moss, Kate Mara, and Kerry Washington. Read: Variety

• Piper Perabo is joining Grey’s Anatomy in a recurring role. I never understood why she was never a bigger star. Read: Deadline

• BBC has hired two executive search companies to find a new Chief Content Officer to replace Charlotte Moore. Guys… I’m right here. Read: Deadline

• In June, the UK’s ITV is retiring its ITVBe channel brand and replacing it with ITV Quiz, drawing upon its extensive game show library. Read: C21

• Jim Vorel has an essay about the “perfect patheticness” of Ben Mendelsohn’s Star Wars character Orson Krennic ahead of Andor’s season 2 return. Read: Paste

• How far can the vibe of Star Wars score be pushed? THR has a great feature looking at the music of the franchise post-John Williams.

---

Trailer Park

Ginny & Georgia season 3 debuts on Netflix June 5.

The Chi is back for season 7 (!!!) on May 16.

Volume 1 of Season 2 of The Sandman returns July 3, as per this date announcement video:

Another date announcement video, this time for Twisted Metal season 2. July 31, if you want to avoid a click.

Movie Real Men debuts May 21 on Netflix with this tired-sounding premise:

Mattia, Massimo, Riccardo, and Luigi, four friends in their forties, confront their prejudices in a world evolving towards gender equality.

---

That’s the newsletter for today.

Consider becoming a paid supporter of Always Be Watching.

Connect with Dan on Bluesky. Connect with Dan on Letterboxd. Connect with Dan on Linkedin. Email Dan @ alwaysbewatching.com or just reply to this email.