Discovery's Jon Steinlauf on Moving the Market with New Premiere Product

When it came time for the new juggernaut to woo advertisers for this Upfront season Steinlauf knew he had an opportunityquotThe ratings world is changing rapidly there aren39t as many companies that have as many hits as we havequot Steinlauf saidamp160 Discovery itself wasn39t hurting for hits with plenty of unscripted series that top the cable charts and even best broadcast but with the addition of Scripps channels like HGTV and the Food Network suddenly Steinlauf found himself with an embarrassment of richesquotBefore the Upfront my team and I sat down and said 39What can we do together that we couldn39t do separately39quot he recalledamp160 quotWe have to think about the value of a hitquotamp160amp160So Steinlauf and his team thought why not combine the potential earning of all these hit series into one attractive package for advertisersamp160 Thus was born Discovery Premiere an ad offering consisting of a collection of 30 series across eight networks that will give clients perks like exclusive first positioning in premiere episodes of these hot hits billboarding promotional integrationamp160and custom researchquotIt39s not just about ratingsamp160with Discovery Premierequot Steinlauf explainedamp160 quotWe looked at shows that were brand names unto themselves audience quality environment andamp160engagementquotThe shows offered in this package will be updated on a quarterly basisamp160 Steinlauf brought up the recently premiered OWN series Love Is which he thinks is a prime candidate for inclusion in PremiereClients will have flexibility tooamp160 If someone does not want their creative running in a particular program that will notamp160be aamp160problem Steinlauf notedamp160 amp160His team will offer something equally attractive brand or ratingswiseWhat39s different about Discovery Premiere is a word you hear more often in the digital world these days scaleamp160 And not just scale from the breadth of programming across all the combined networks but within the shows themselves which tend to be brands that can not only go on indefinitely but can spawn unlimited new iterationsamp160 quotWe39ve got scalable hitsquot Steinlauf saidamp160 quotYou39ll never run out of stories to tell for TLC39s 90 Day Fiancamp233quotOwning the IP these shows are based on is crucial because it allows the company free rein when it comes to digital distributionamp160 That means the Premiere package will include inventory in Discovery Networks39 TV everywhere GO appsquotWhat Netflix taught us is there39s a lot of bingewatching and catching upquot Steinlauf saidamp160 quotPeople like to watch television differentlyamp160 Download the GO apps and we39ll offer entire series to youquotamp160 Unlike Netflix though Discovery39s GO apps have ads giving viewers the bingeing environment they crave without training them to be adaverseamp160 Steinlauf said ad revenue from the company39s apps generated twoamp160points of incremental ad revenue in 2017Steinlauf and his team only brought the Discovery Premiere product to market a few weeks before this interview but the response has been positive thus faramp160amp160quotWe39re talking about it every dayquot heamp160saidamp160 quotWe didn39t want to waitamp160 If you want to buy September scatter you39re going to be looking at thisquotamp160Discovery Premiere isn39t necessarily meant to compete directly against the supposed scale of broadcast TVamp160 What it is Steinlauf said is an effort to make the marketplace more aware of what cable and more specifically Discovery brings to the tableamp160 Other segments like sports and news have seen changes in how buyers and sellers approach a fragmented viewer pool but the entertainment marketplace has been slower to adaptOn the last Sunday in June Steinlauf noted 11 of the top 20 shows in the coveted women 2554 demographic in all of TV broadcast and cable belonged to a Discovery network across the flagship itself TLC HGTV Food Networkamp160and Investigation DiscoveryquotWe39re a rare company that can actually affect changequot he saidamp160 quotThe timing is right and we39re the company to do itquotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Discovery's Jon Steinlauf on Moving the Market with New Premiere Product

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Discovery's Jon Steinlauf on Moving the Market with New Premiere Product

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Oriana Schwindt

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