Streaming platforms’ different strategies to grow in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Globoplay, Directv Go, Samsung TV Plus and Telecine have each developed their own approach to guarantee their share of the Brazilian market. The companies that offer streaming services in Brazil have different strategies to face the advance of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.

Globoplay’s product director Erick Bretas said yesterday, April 26th, during the Streaming Brasil event, held by the Teletime website, that his platform’s strategy is to offer exclusive content.

He recalled that Big Brother Brazil is a great audience catalyst. The platform’s audience drops at the end of the program’s season, “but a part of it remains every year.”

Bretas did not disclose the total number of subscribers to the service. Justwatch research for the first quarter of the year indicates that Globoplay is the 4th main competitor in local streaming, behind Netflix, Amazon and Disney+.

According to him, the Brazilian streaming market is still far from saturation, since there are still many customers in broadband to be reached, and many for subscribing to high-speed internet. To stand up to rivals, the platform is betting on exclusive content. “We expect growth of 25% to 30%,” he said.

LINEAR

Gustavo Fonseca, president of Directv Go in Latin America, agrees with Bretas about the expansion trend of OTTs. “Brazil is experiencing a boom in fiber broadband,” he said. In the case of its platform, the goal is to compete by bringing linear content for streaming and an indication system capable of suggesting to the consumer what is being broadcast on the channels that please the customer, based on their usage history.

The executive states that Directv Go has no structured plans to produce or distribute exclusive content in Brazil, as it does in the rest of Latin America. In neighboring countries, the company has a variety channel and a sports channel that broadcasts local competitions. Any broadcasting of exclusive content, he warned, will be the result of a partnership with Sky Brasil, a company that also belongs to Vrio, AT&T’s media arm in the region. “But we don’t have a structured project and deadlines.”

EASE OF USE

Samsung TV Plus is also a platform that targets linear content to stand out. But it has another trump card: being integrated with Samsung’s smart TVs. As explained by Aline Jabbour, director of business development at Samsung TV Plus, the intention of the platform launched in 19 countries is to attract an audience due to its ease of use.

“The idea of TV Plus is to bring the experience that the consumer had back there with traditional TV. Our differentiator is ease of use. Take it out of the box, connect to the internet and turn on the control, TV Plus is there. We do not compete with streamings, we are complementary,” she said.

According to her, internal Samsung research indicates that 46% of consumers switch between streaming and linear TV. Precisely at this moment, when consumers leave an app to go to a channel, TV Plus wants to appear and be an option. The monetization of the platform is not by subscription, but rather by advertising within the channels broadcast.

“Our partners can see in real time the channel’s audience. There are metrics with a one-day delay, and hourly metrics. When Big Brother ends, we have a spike in our platform,” she said.

BIG RELEASES FIRST

Eldes Mattiuzo, general director of the Telecine Network, which comprises Hollywood studios, said that, although some of the studios associated to the platform have their streaming apps for now Telecine will continue to be the environment where releases after theaters happen first.

“Paramount, FOX and MGM, by the partnership set up at Telecine, the first window content is still coming to us. Can this change? It’s difficult, because Telecine has a very large distribution platform, there are six Telecine and Megapix channels, besides the app”, he pointed out.

In the United States, all these studios prioritize their own apps. But Mattiuzo recalls that the Brazilian market has another maturity level, compared to the American one. “There is a difference in the audience, a difference in buying power. We don’t know how many streaming services the average Brazilian will have. Here in Brazil and in Latin America, I believe that these producers will not limit the content to their platforms,” he emphasized.

He said that the pandemic brought problems to Telecine, which based much of its marketing on bringing premieres out of theaters before other channels.

“The closing of theaters has been a problem, it’s being missed, it’s the big audience booster,” he stressed. In addition, studios have delayed major productions, to premiere them when the theaters reopen. The solution found was to hire exclusive, lower-budget films, which are broadcast under the Premiére Telecine label.

Source: Telesintese