DENVER – At Fierce Video’s StreamTV Show in Denver this week Rick Howe, host of The Friday Fireside webcast, asked a very pointed question during a couple of industry panels. Howe’s question was about the popular series “Yellowstone,” which was created by Paramount. He asked why Paramount won’t point viewers to earlier seasons of the show on Comcast’s Peacock streaming service?
The Paramount Network runs the newest episode on cable and satellite TV, and it also runs on the Paramount+ streaming service.
But for older seasons of the show, viewers must go to Peacock. That’s because in the early days of “Yellowstone,” Paramount struck a deal with NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast, to give Comcast the U.S. streaming rights to reruns of the show. This licensing deal was struck before the show became a major hit.
For consumers, it’s quite confusing to figure out how to watch past seasons of the show. And even if they watch the latest show on the Paramount Network or Paramount+, they don’t know how to catch up on seasons they’ve missed. A Rolling Stone article makes a valiant effort to try and help.
At the StreamTV Show, Howe asked several executives why Paramount refuses to provide some kind of direction to viewers, letting them know they can find older seasons on Peacock. One of the executives that Howe asked was Will Gurman, VP of global partnerships and content strategy with Paramount Streaming. Gurman said, “Our primary focus of ‘Yellowstone’ is really stunting on Paramount. Our focus is continuing within our ecosystem.”
Speaking with Fierce, Howe said, “I was kind of pushing him into the corner. I knew what the answer was going to be. NBC is sitting in the catbird’s seat with seasons 1-4, exclusively. Even though it’s a Paramount show, they [Paramount] don’t have the rights to seasons 1-4.”
And even though it would be super helpful for consumers who want to watch the show, Paramount won’t do anything to point them to Peacock. “The corporate strategy is they don’t want to help the competition,” said Howe.
Of the Paramount/Peacock situation with “Yellowstone,” Colin Dixon, principal with nScreenMedia, said, “Paramount Global has always had a very vibrant licensing business. Even though people need to reserve their best content only for their own services, I’m a little surprised they won’t make that connection between a current season and a past season because they’re partners. Why not point them over there? But it’s not something done in the industry today.”
Help! Help!
If there’s one topic that gets a lot of air-time at the StreamTV Show, it’s the fact that finding stream TV content is difficult for consumers. Executives are constantly saying how they need to make it easier.
But the “Yellowstone” situation illuminates the fact that streamers could make things easier for consumers. They choose not to because of competitive reasons.
Dixon said, “They’re not in the business of promoting other people’s services. They want to promote their own.”
Is there any help for the consumer on the horizon?
Howe said, “My personal belief is that Paramount+ and Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery need to work together to compete with Disney+ , Netflix and Amazon. I don’t mean they have to merge. But they have to decide they’re going to work together.”
He predicts that Comcast and Charter, as part of their joint venture, will take all those streaming services and put them on Comcast’s Flex and essentially, by doing that, create something that feels to the consumer a lot like cable TV with its multi-channel selections.
For the JV, the companies will use Comcast’s Flex aggregated streaming platform and hardware. Customers of the new platform don’t need to be Charter or Comcast broadband subscribers.
Howe said Flex will give consumers a place to discover streaming content and add and subtract streaming apps. “I’m one of the people who believes you can’t change the DNA of a company,” he said. “Doing that kind of service is in Comcast’s DNA.”