The niche potential for streaming classic soaps

[TEdgeofNight]

There aren't enough viewers to make this 'niche' audience profitable. It'll never happen. It's been tried and failed miserably. 

[Broderick]

Same here.  Even though I watched The Edge of Night most afternoons in the late 1970s and early 1980s -- and therefore I already know how each crime and mystery is resolved -- I enjoy watching the old episodes to catch the clues that I foolishly missed when the episodes originally aired.  The style of writing includes many red herrings deliberately thrown in our direction, and many actual CLUES sprinkled into what appear on the surface to be mundane conversations.  When I re-watch an episode on You Tube, I always find myself wondering, "How did I MISS that clue in 1981?  I sat there and WATCHED this episode!"  There's a certain timelessness about it -- probably because of the film noir/cops and robbers format -- that simply doesn't exist in other serialized shows.   

[Contessa Donatella]

Personally I do not think it has been tried well enough, although right now the streaming of classic soaps that are underway, maybe they are doing it right. I will be anxious to learn any numbers if they're ever available. 

[Maxim]

This will happen one day... I believe it. Bold is the first that is streaming now nearly 2000 episodes and going forward.

[te.]

The big issue is that those other soaps aren't digitized and that takes a lot of time and money to do; I suspect the reason why Bold is on streaming is because the Bells just kept up with the technology and probably had it digitized early (especially as they sold it in reruns to some countries in the past).

If someone decides to digitize the archives that remains then *maybe* I could see it happening on some form of FAST service, but it would be more of a passion/preservation project and there are so many (shorter) tv shows and movies that it would take a long time before they came around to the soap archives.

[Contessa Donatella]

There ya go! That's the attitude! Clearly B&B and GH and Y&R all have experiments going on. Neighbours is a major streaming event. Dark Shadows, Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, all streaming with people clamoring for KNOTS! Plus The Doctors which ran aground sorta, from trouble. 

[BrendaB]

Yeah, they need to put up all these episodes on Youtube or Facebook Watch.  If the entire music industry can put up all the music videos and song recordings on Youtube and be able to monetize it, there's no reason whoever owns the soap episodes couldn't (and it takes care of the music rights because Youtube already has arrangements for that).  The episodes are now collecting dust, they could be collecting a few thousand or million dollars, building exposure/interest from a global audience on a huge platform like Youtube.

[Contessa Donatella]

Gossip Girl is on max, apple, hulumax, Roku, Google Play, VuDu, Amazon & Microsoft.

[Contessa Donatella]

Kindred: The Embraced, excellent short-run, only 8 episodes, vampire soap is available on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzovi87vDfzLiv_-xg5wV5RO0hY3uNKuC

Stacy Haiduk, Patrick Bachau, Brigid Brannagh, Jeff Kober, RIP Mark Frankel, C. Thomas Howell, Kelly Rutherford, Kate Vernon, Ivan Sergei, Patricia Charbonnea

Edited October 1, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
more info

[asafi]

don't understand why TPTB not releasing classic episodes from 60'-70's to YouTube.. for instance days of our lives. Clearly they store all those old episodes and once in forever show flashbacks (for instance when bill horton died.. we witnessed via flashbacks to bill and Doug's first meeting from 1970!!!) 

they should release those episode even for pay per view.. grrrrr

[Contessa Donatella]

It is frustrating to us as fans. But, it would involve actual digitizing & curating & they'd have to have servers so it's easy to see why just dumping things on YouTube would not allow them to cover their costs, ya know? 

And, the question to them is, of course, if they could make money off of it. I believe that they could. And, DAYS is an excellent example because they have all of it except one season & those early years written by Bill Bell & then by Pat Falken Smith would probably draw fans of different ages. 

[asafi]

so they should hire staff to digitize those episodes, and then offer for pay per view online. I'm sure there will much huge demand for all those old classic episodes. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, I quite agree. In making their shows available to a large international market it must have been advantageous to digitize them, which put B&B ahead of the game. Of course, that gives them the leg up on being able to do a grand experiment with a well organized, even elegant, specialized channel on YouTube which already has in place the means to monetize as well as being available to an enormous international access. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Paradise Falls is a Canadian weekly soap opera that aired on the Showcase channel from June 25, 2001, to September 26, 2008.  The show’s premise was that the town of Paradise Falls’ cottage life was not what one would expect - beneath its idyllic surface lurked scandal, murder, deceit, betrayal, steamy love affairs, and political intrigue. The show’s open approach to sexual and homosexual themes caused reruns of the show to be carried on the Here! TV network in the United States, which targets gay and lesbian viewers. The show has a total of 3 seasons with a total of 104 episodes. 

All can be found on YouTube. 

[YRBB]

Generally speaking, I think YouTube is probably the best option for this sort of thing - just like Bold is doing. Anything they can make from monetizing is more than the episodes make now. That being said, if the library isn't digitized, the cost of that could potentially never be made back (and probably wouldn't).