The Dan Rayburn Podcast

This week, we break down many of the World Cup TV and streaming viewership numbers from around the world, as most outlets do not break out streaming-only data. We also discuss the latest comments from the CEOs of Disney and Netflix on their ad-supported models. Also covered: Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports Q3 earnings (Net loss of $1.2B); Yahoo's 30-year deal with Taboola; NFL TV vi...

This week, we discuss Bob Iger returning to Disney as CEO and the impact it could have on Disney’s DTC business, including bundling, pricing, sports licensing and improving Disney's balance sheet. We also highlight the new details Apple released about their MLS streaming service, MLS Season Pass, which will offer 1080p/60 video and launch in February for $15 a month or $100 for the year. Also...

This week, we discuss the recent comments from Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO regarding profitability, retention, windowing, bundling and pricing for HBO Max and Discovery+. Profitability, not purely sub count, is how they benchmark for success. We also discuss his comments on how collapsing all windows, starving linear and theatrical and spending money with abandon, while earning only a fraction in...

This week, we break down all the key numbers you need to know from Q3 2022 earnings from OTT companies and streaming vendors, including Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Roku, Fubo, Warner Bros. Discovery, FOX, Vimeo, Brightcove, Fastly, Cloudflare, Altice, DISH, Lionsgate and AMC Networks. Learn the latest D2C subscriber numbers, ARPU per user and how much money OTT platforms are still losing (Disney l...

This week, we break down Fubo's decision to close and exit the Sportsbook market, along with DAZN's comments that betting within streaming services isn't a reality in the next few years. We also highlight some new sports viewership numbers from NBC Sports and the NFL; cover recent pay TV losses by pay TV providers; detail Apple's new Apple TV boxes; and discuss the NBA's n...

This week, we break down Netflix's soon-to-be-released AVOD offering and note that video quality is limited to 720p, with no ability to download. Are consumers willing to sacrifice video quality for price? Will the streaming industry need to rethink how they define video "quality" if consumers are willing to accept 720p as "good enough"? We also discuss Netflix's meas...

This week, we break down Nielsen’s confusing streaming rankings, which don't accurately compare shows using the same metrics. We also highlight Peacock's latest paid sub numbers (15 million); Google's expanded cloud deal with MLB; Mux's recent round of layoffs; Vizio's FAST ad revenue and Roku's removal of all SDK1 channels. We also discuss how many companies hiring f...

This week, we break down the viewership numbers from Amazon’s first Thursday Night Football game and the differences among the reported numbers. (11.8M, 13M, 15.3M) We also discuss the news that Google is adding HEVC support in Chrome and some cost details from Twitch about how expensive it is to deliver HD, low-latency, always-available live video to nearly every corner of the world. Finally, we...

This week, we break down Amazon's stream of its NFL Thursday Night Football game on September 15th and the wide variety of user experiences reported, both good and bad. We discuss the issue that some ISPs had, resulting in poor video quality, the terrible job by Amazon support, a large group of people reporting audio and video issues and a host of other comments from viewers. We also highligh...

This week I’m joined by a special guest, Barry Tishgart, who just left Disney Streaming Services as a SVP and GM of Technology Services. Barry joins me to discuss the current state of the sports streaming business, including RSN licensing, bundling, pricing, distribution, video quality and what the consumer sports experience will look like in the future. Companies and services mentioned: Amazon Pr...

This week, we discuss recent news about Amazon’s plans to use Nielsen for TV measurement of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video and highlight the problems the streaming industry faces in defining what success looks like. With no standards or agreed-upon methodologies, definitions or user metrics, the streaming industry is struggling to measure and define viewership across services. We also reca...

This week we recap all the news from Disney's April-June earnings, including their D2C business losing over $1B in the quarter; their addition of 14.4M Disney+ subs globally; Hulu and Disney+ price raises; Hulu losing 3.4M SVOD subs and  100,000 Live TV subs and their launch of Disney+ with ads in December. We also cover the numbers you need to know from Akamai (Revenue up 6% y/o/y), Edgio (I...

This week we discuss why FAST services are overrated; the news that HBO Max and Discovery+ will launch as a single service in the U.S. next summer; we highlight the key data you need to know from Q2 earnings from Paramount (added 4.9M Paramount+ subs), fuboTV, (lost 70,000 subs), Lionsgate (added 1.8M Starz subs) and cover earnings from streaming vendors including Fastly, Brightcove and Vimeo. We...

This week, we break down the key numbers you need to know from Q2 earnings at Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Comcast, Roku, Charter, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung. We cover the "significant slowdown in TV advertising” seen by Roku and others; Meta's price per ad falling by 14%; Peacock TV subs being flat quarter-over-quarter; cord cutting from Charter (lost 240,000 pay TV subs) and Comcast (lost...

This week we discuss the latest advertising numbers from Twitter and Snap's Q2 earnings, which saw slowing demand for their platforms and had declining revenue. We also highlight Verizon's cord-cutting rate, with the company losing 86,000 pay TV subscribers in Q2 and now having lost 8.1% of all its pay TV subs in the last 12 months.  Also discussed: Qwilt's deal with the NCTC to dep...

This week, we discuss the key takeaways from Netflix's Q2 earnings report, including subscriber losses for two consecutive quarters, Netflix's growth outlook, and the current state of Netflix's balance sheet. We also detail what we've learned about their plans to offer an ad-supported tier and why we believe this is a real opportunity for Netflix, rather than a challenge, as so...

This week we break down a preview of what to look for in Netflix’s Q2 2021 earnings, including subscriber losses/gains, ARPU and an expected update on their advertising strategy. We also discuss the potential impact of Stranger Things Season 4 on churn and retention, as Netflix has split the series' release across two financial quarters. We also detail the IPL Media streaming rights (2023-202...

This week, we break down some financial news, including the proposed sale of Deltatre, which is expected to generate $180 million in revenue in 2022, and Pixelot's $161 million funding round. We also discuss Limelight’s final sale price for Edgecast, which valued the company at $135 million. Mark and I also break down Netflix’s confirmation that it is not buying Roku, discuss how the Apple an...

In this episode, we discuss how sporting events (NBA, NHL, Indy 500, PGA, Premier League) are seeing record viewership on cable TV, while sports leagues and broadcasters make no mention of streaming viewership. We also discuss the new NESN 360 sports streaming service and the potential loss of the IPL (Indian Premier League) for Disney, which would affect Disney+ Hotstar’s growth. We also talk abo...

With more streaming services adding AVOD plans, this week we break down ARPU amongst streaming services, which now have to be properly compared between SVOD, AVOD and a combo of the two. We also highlight new information from Disney and Netflix about their ad-supported plans, Telestream's acquisition of Encoding.com, the new NFL+ service, and Paramount's thoughts on the windowing of movi...

This week, we break down Q1 2022 calendar earnings from Disney, fuboTV and DISH, including subscriber gains/losses, ARPU and revenue growth rate. We also detail engagement numbers that highlight what engagement looks like across gaming (Roblox, Activision Blizzard), trading (Robinhood, Coinbase), social (Facebook), and other platforms, showing how consumer behavior has changed since the pandemic. ...

This week, we break down the key numbers you need to know from Q1 earnings reports, including updated subscriber and ARPU numbers from Paramount+, Roku, Peacock TV and cord-cutting numbers from Charter, Comcast and Verizon. We also detail the revenue growth rate and GAAP net loss/gain from cloud and streaming vendors, including Akamai, Alphabet, Brightcove, Fastly, Limelight, Microsoft and Vimeo....

This week, we discuss some of the news from the NAB Show, detail some of the products and services we saw on the exhibit floor and talk about the hottest topics discussed at the Streaming Summit. We also detail attendee numbers, some of the NAB's plans for the new show in NYC in October, how engineering teams are building out video applications and what the future of the media business looks...

On Monday April 25th, Google  announced a new commercial CDN offering called "Media CDN", as part of their Google Cloud platform. For this special podcast, I sat down with David Reisfeld, Customer Engineering Manager and Network Specialist at Google, to discuss the news. We cover why Google is entering the CDN market, what their new service consists of, how Media CDN is leveraging YouTub...

This week, we break down Roku’s business model, discussing their challenges but also the large opportunity they have in the market when it comes to the strength of their advertising platform. We also discuss Roku’s ARPU, international growth and the success they have seen in their OS platform for TV manufacturers. We also highlight some AVOD news in the market and discuss Netflix's plan to ad...