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Post by horizon on Aug 8, 2022 13:33:55 GMT -5
As we deliberate on what this major and drastic move means there are a few things to chew on. Most people agree the roll out was poorly executed and too many diehard fans will be left out in the cold.
1 - Is this NBC basically farming out the show with the full intent of cutting the cord after their current contract runs out, I believe in the spring of next year?
2 - Is NBC using it as an experiment to see which way the wind is blowing before deciding on renewing Days contract?
3 - Is the long-term plan with Peacock to dwindle the show down in production and perhaps episodes too. Smaller casts and little finite story segments?
On number 1 I say can't me out. I have zero interest in a soap that will ultimately WRAP things up with the "big finish." The second I hear Days is projected to terminate on a certain day is surely the last time I will watch the show.
Number 2 is a feeling out process. The audience will surely shrink. Will they make up for it with viewers dishing out dollars to watch Peacock? Not entirely sold on that score but time will tell.
On number 3 I will also bail. The downsizing of Magazines is a good corollary. Iconic magazines like TV Guide, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated have all dramatically downsized and without a shadow of a doubt the product is of much lesser value. Sports Illustrated is a classic example. It used to be weekly with a couple of double issues, usually one during the summer and one at year end. Now it comes out 12 times a year. Like night and day.
So, if Days decides to skimp and cut corners and reduce the cast size, shows etc. it will surely damage the show probably to the point of no return where I am concerned.
So, is there any room for good news? Perhaps? It all depends of course.
If Peacock represents a serious "new wave" in TV viewing and isn't treated as a minor league farm out location Days could be one of the first of many shows that make Peacock, their home.
There have been roughly three big changes in TV. The first was the introduction of cable which changed things beyond belief. The second was the introduction of premium cable channels like HBO that brought quality shows into the mix not to mention movies.
The third wave which we are now in is streaming. Netflix being the most popular example.
One encouraging bit of news is ABC has farmed out their popular "Dancing with the Stars" show onto Disney + a streaming channel that will cost consumers $7.99 a month. With almost kismet like precision "Dancing..." will debut on Disney + right around the time Days debuts on Peacock.
Which begs the question? Do "Days of Our Lives" and "Dancing with the Stars" represent the "new hip?" Now that streaming is a big player in viewing perhaps these migrating shows are the beginning of a new frontier where more major shows call places like Peacock and Disney + their home.
I think the best clues to watch out for are production values. If Days production stays the same or go up, then that probably means good news for the future. If there is a noticeable drop in production and cast reductions etc. then chances are pretty good, we are looking at a minor league situation.
I'll try to stay cautiously optimistic amidst the gloom. When feeling optimistic I say to myself Days is just the tip of the iceberg in this new streaming amalgam.
One thing is pretty certain. The show will probably be more risqué on Peacock.
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Post by mikey on Aug 9, 2022 17:47:03 GMT -5
I agree that the rollout has been botched. I suspect the thinking is that they didn't want to give people too much notice because they WANT people to feel panicked and fork over the money for Peacock Premium, or to prod people who have been dragging their feet on signing up to try it because they don't want to miss anything. Given the... uh... inconsistent nature of the show these days, I suspect six months' heads-up would just cause a lot of people to decide they can live without Days.
But it's been a week since the news came out and not a word from the show officially. If they want this to work -- and I'm sure they do, because they want more of the eyeballs that Beyond Salem and A Very Salem Christmas drew committed to Peacock -- there should be a major advertising push. I guess it's a good thing that the show seen on Peacock on Monday, September 12th won't be any different from the one that airs on NBC on Friday the 9th, but with our luck, that Friday will have some lame, ho-hum cliffhanger about Gwen almost getting caught in a lie for the 600th time. Not exactly a big, grabby cliffhanger that will get people excited to start streaming the show on the following Monday. And part of that advertising push should be offering resources for viewers to understand and use Peacock. I've seen comments on Facebook groups like, "I don't have cable, so I can't watch Peacock," but someone using internet to post on Facebook theoretically CAN stream Peacock (if their bandwidth allows) and should be given the chance to understand how it all works.
I do feel badly for lower-income or older viewers who don't even know this is coming. Why don't we have interstitials on-air already with actors explaining the upcoming change to more casual viewers who don't look up Days info online?
That said, this is the way the business is heading. The streaming services aren't a dumping ground for third-tier content. They're the destination. Linear TV is dying; it has been for years. The advertising revenues available are way, way down from where they were 15 or 20 years ago. The past few shows I've worked on, the networks have outright said they do not care about the same-day viewership numbers, because they know they're increasingly inconsequential. And the "worst" viewers are the ones who DVR and watch later, because they skip the ads. The studios and networks much prefer OnDemand or streaming, where you can't skip the ads, which are what pay for the shows. The programs nominated for Emmys are by and large the shows on HBO(/Max), Netflix, and Hulu. There ARE "major primetime shows" exclusively on streamers: Stranger Things, The Dropout, Hacks, Bridgerton, and so on. Peacock had the recent Saved by the Bell and (Fresh Prince of) Bel Air revivals, which didn't make the impact they were hoping for, but they were pretty big shows. Daytime TV is increasingly a place to catch casual eyeballs, like people watching TV in a doctor's office waiting room or a car dealership or whatnot. It isn't seen as "destination viewing" for most people, especially not in the "desirable" demographics, so that's why they are filling it up with endless news. They don't expect a ton of people to tune in for all four hours of Today, but they figure a lot of people will catch 20 or 30 minutes as they go about their mornings.
What I think is a mistake is putting Days behind the paywall entirely. I guess Beyond Salem and A Very Salem Christmas proved that Days-related content would provide a spike in subscriptions to Peacock, but that seems incredibly short-sighted. There will no longer be casual eyeballs watching Days, except if they already paid for Peacock Premium for some other show. A lapsed viewer won't just flip past the channel and see Marlena or Steve or Jack or Sami and go, "Hmmm, I wonder what they've been up to!" and get sucked back in. I think what they should have done is put it on the free tier of Peacock, with ads, meaning anyone with internet access could watch -- but delay the episodes by two weeks or a month, so Premium subscribers get the shows first, and everyone else gets them a few weeks later. That would still draw the hardcore subscribers but it would keep more casual viewers able to see the show, and if something HUGE were happening (say, Bo returning to the main show), you could get a few more hundred people to cough up the $4.99 if they're able because they don't want to wait a month to see Bo.
Basically, I get why they're doing this, and I understand that this is where the business is headed. But they're going about it in a way that I think could yield really bad longterm results.
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Post by heroicmuse on Aug 9, 2022 19:02:04 GMT -5
mikey With Beyond Salem, I started seeing ads the week before during Days, so I suspect they will do the same thing. I also wonder if they will put ads on during their news program that is in that slot. For a few weeks after each Beyond Salem installment premiered, there were consistently ads on for it during Days. There was an article in Soap Opera Digest this week, I think, and Soaps She Knows announces the move at the end of every article and blog they post about Days, so that may help. I've been trying to link to TV Fanatic's article about the move in my reviews and spoiler posts too. I do think they could do a better job promoting outside of SOD and the announcement being carried by all major TV sites, though, and I also do wonder if they will be putting episodes on the free Peacock a week or two behind. Part of the reason my sister isn't signing up is because she's expecting that will be the case.
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Post by mikey on Aug 9, 2022 20:24:05 GMT -5
mikey With Beyond Salem, I started seeing ads the week before during Days, so I suspect they will do the same thing. I also wonder if they will put ads on during their news program that is in that slot. For a few weeks after each Beyond Salem installment premiered, there were consistently ads on for it during Days. There was an article in Soap Opera Digest this week, I think, and Soaps She Knows announces the move at the end of every article and blog they post about Days, so that may help. I've been trying to link to TV Fanatic's article about the move in my reviews and spoiler posts too. I do think they could do a better job promoting outside of SOD and the announcement being carried by all major TV sites, though, and I also do wonder if they will be putting episodes on the free Peacock a week or two behind. Part of the reason my sister isn't signing up is because she's expecting that will be the case. Oh, that's good to know about the ads during the NBC airing! I actually haven't watched the show on NBC in close to two years -- I was watching on the NBC app and then on Peacock, so I didn't realize it was that extensive. It's great they are making the viewers on the daytime airing so aware of BS and I hope that'll be the case with this move. It will be so jarring for some older or offline viewers to just... have Days gone one Monday. |
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Post by fluffysmom on Aug 14, 2022 13:26:13 GMT -5
On my NBC station a notification regarding Days moving to Peacock was scrolling across the bottom of the screen continuously through Thursday and Friday's episodes. Hopefully the notification was shown on all NBC affiliates across the country. It's good that they are giving a month's notice to viewers who may not keep up with news about the show.
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Post by heroicmuse on Aug 16, 2022 16:09:31 GMT -5
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Post by UhSir on Aug 19, 2022 18:23:49 GMT -5
Text of the tweet, by TVMoJoe
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Post by billiereed on Aug 19, 2022 22:59:07 GMT -5
Oh bummer. They would have enticed so many fans if they offered older, classic episodes. I had a feeling it was too good to be true though  |
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Post by gapeach on Aug 22, 2022 14:58:25 GMT -5
The free version of Peacock actually shows the show the next day. For example, Friday's show is available on Peacock now
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Post by wendylou on Aug 22, 2022 16:09:59 GMT -5
The free version of Peacock actually shows the show the next day. For example, Friday's show is available on Peacock now Mine has it available the same day - usually not until around 7:00 pm. BUT - I think that will stop in September when they take it off the air. Then you will have to pay to watch. |
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Post by horizon on Aug 22, 2022 18:13:38 GMT -5
Peacock is a PAIN in the ass to navigate. Watched a Premiere League soccer match this afternoon and it was full of stumbling blocks. Takes forever to load on the TV and then they cut it off at halftime, so I had to guess when to punch it back up before the second half started. Good luck swinging back and forth between stations. You will miss a lot of the show trying to reload the damn thing if you exit Peacock for a brief spell.
The picture is slightly different than regular TV and I can't say I like it. Must be the streaming that gives it that slightly outer space look.
To make matters worse one CANNOT record the show on Peacock. That is a real bitch since sometimes I like to revisit a scene. Right now, I can speed through a whole episode in less than two minutes to get to scenes I want to re watch.
I heard the 7 PM start time too and that is not good for me either. For me, Peacock is far from being an upgrade. Just a move with added problems and headaches with a hell of a lot less flexibility.
Progress. Yes siree.
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Post by heroicmuse on Aug 22, 2022 18:21:00 GMT -5
horizon you do not need to record anything on Peacock. It is there whenever you want to watch it. When you return to the episode you've chosen it asks if you want to resume from where you are or start from the beginning. You vcan rewatch as much as you want (I often rewatch scenes on Peacock when working on my weekly column.)
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Post by billiereed on Aug 22, 2022 22:15:27 GMT -5
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Post by heroicmuse on Aug 22, 2022 22:54:50 GMT -5
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Post by billiereed on Aug 22, 2022 23:40:41 GMT -5
I hope we don't have to guess then when they will drop lol That will be confusing.
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