The niche potential for streaming classic soaps

[Contessa Donatella]

I think it is more than a little bit interesting that Disney owns Santa Barbara, Ryan's Hope, AMC, OLTL, GH, ... am I leaving anything out? Yes, I am. PC & GH: Night Shift. They could set up one unit to digitize & decide how to package & market a classic soaps hub! AMC & OLTL are both supposedly missing 5 seasons that were lost in the same warehouse fire but other than that they have every episode of 7 soaps. Of course GH is both current and classic, so it might require different treatment. But, even if GH were taken out, 6 soaps is substantial! 

[AmandainNC28655]

ABC and Disney own Hulu I think. They should incorporate them on that platform with a special section for classic soaps.

[Faulkner]

Where you at, @j swift?

[j swift]

LOL, I think I've said my peace on this topic...

Retro TV filed for bankruptcy in 2021 after being dropped from 120 affiliates to 80. It was off the air or downgraded to "zombie" channels in NYC, LA, and Chicago from 2015-2019.  They've been bought and sold three times, each time for less money, and they've not posted a profit earning since 2008. Lionsgate bought the TV Guide channel to turn it into POPtv for $255 mill, then CBS bought 30% of it and began airing Y&R and B&B. By 2019 CBS bought back the whole channel for $125 mil, less than half of the initial evaluation.  SoapNet was launched in 2000, by 2004 they could no longer afford to produce original content like Soap Chat due to low ratings.  Within its decade as a channel, it lost carriage on Time Warner Cable due to poor performance.

Just like you can't ask GM to bring back Pontiac, streamers don't want to broadcast a product that has already failed.  I mean, it's not like nobody has thought about it before...

Edited September 15, 2023 by j swift

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, I don't know what it is & If I don't there could be others who do not, also. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, for one example Prospect Park failed miserably with their online reboots of current AMC & OLTL, different but because they were current not classic but there's no reason to think that their failure was for lack of audience. There was ample evidence that they failed because they had no idea how to produce soaps & pretty much did everything wrong that anyone could think of. 

SOAPnet had great fan interest with both Ryan's Hope and Another World. I'm not convinced that original content like Soap Talk are what a classic fan is looking for. And, SOAPnet lost many eyeballs when they began to run things like One Tree Hill. 

Right now B&B has its OG episodes up on its own YouTube channel. Both GH and Y&R have some classic years up beginning with 2018. Neighbours has both classic & current episodes streaming. Dark Shadows is up & has been up. Also Dallas & Dynasty. Knots Landing is on the list of top 10 shows fans say they want. BITD USA ran EON & SFT classic episodes. And, when Generations went off the air BET reran it several times through its run. This summer Stephen King was on twitter trying to find out how he could watch EON. Everywhere online fans say they would watch classic soaps if they were on some channel where they could easily access them. I think Retro TV, for example, did not fit the ease of access factor. 

 

[j swift]

My point is rather obvious.

Every few months, someone suggests that major media companies should stream old soaps, as if it was a new idea.

However, the companies that own the IP have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on that idea.  So, regardless of fan support, history has demonstrated that is not a profitable concept.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

I don't know that anyone thinks it is a new idea. I certainly do not. I've tracked it & been interested in it for a great many years. Typically at the beginning of any new thing, there are failures. However, this does not necessarily mean that will continue. I mean if you look at the early years of televised soaps, the failure rate is simply staggering. If they'd quit then, they'd never have been the huge profit makers they became. 

[dragonflies]

Plus you gotta take into consideration music rights, licensing rights etc

I don't see why they can't do like what BOLD does and put episodes on You Tube, maybe put them on YT Premium if needs be

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, definitely there are issues & music rights is a major one. That is said to be the hold up on streaming Knots Landing, China Beach & Moonlighting to name 3 that are on the "wanted" list. If you watched China Beach, I mean the music was practically a character. 

What B&B is doing is very interesting. I'm not sure I understand how they are justifying the cost of digitizing, curating the collection, etc. But, then my next question is how available is YouTube internationally & I think it is very. 

[Manny]

I think some people here are overestimating the number of people that would be watching old soaps.

As it was said here, this was attempted via SoapNet in the past, and it was shown as a non-profitable thing. Introducing One Tree Hill was probably done as a result of unsatisfactory ratings, in hope to gain young viewers who were watching OTH then.

How are they doing it with BB Youtube thing, no clue. Maybe because BB is more international? But even their views are very low, from what I can see majority eps have around 30-35k views which seems very low.

To invest money in digitalization and servers to keep all those thousands of episodes for shows, some which have been gone for more than 30 years? Seems like a bad idea to me, as much as I would personally watch (maybe) some of them. I started watching BB on Youtube and then I stopped after some time...

[dragonflies]

Soapnet wasn't in all the markets either was it? I think that was a factor as well. I know where I live we didn't get it till like 5 or 6 years after the network debuted

[Contessa Donatella]

I'm guessing that would be me. 

[dragonflies]

and even in my market the cable co had Soapnet on the premiump package too. It wasn't till like a few years before the network went off the air that it was just on the regular basic cable

[soapfave06]

I’m unaware of the logistics of residuals and music rights but I don’t see how they could lose money if they did some sort of premium channel. There is almost too much content on some of these streaming apps, I’m sure that has to cost more to produce. 
 

I could see them not doing every episode but perhaps uploading episodes within arcs, like for lack of a better example, Marty’s gang rape trial on One Life to Live or all of the Masquerade Ball on Young and Restless where David Kimble was exposed with a previously on edit at the beginning. 
 

Passions, Edge of Night, classic Days is often asked for.