NBCUniversal is readying the launch a over-the-top service that will incentivize viewers to watch shows with redeemable points and gift certificates.

NBCU doesn’t have a launch date for the platform, which will offer single episodes of its broadcast and cable shows, enticing viewers to sample them and potentially get hooked. The platform would also reportedly offer non-exclusive content from YouTube stars and other internet video creators.

NBCU has registered the domain WatchBack.com, which is currently only populated with the text message, “coming soon.”

Related: Comcast Sees New Path Ahead for ‘Watchable’

News of WatchBack was originally reported by The Information, although NBCU has since confirmed the story.

NBCU, of course, has had a spotty track record in regard to launching streaming services. The conglomerate invested $75 million in niche comedy SVOD site Seeso, only to scuttle the offering after 18 months.

Meanwhile, short-form video platform Watchable, launched in 2015 by NBCU parent Comcast, has never found traction, either.

NBCU does, however, have a 30% stake in SVOD giant Hulu. 

Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu have all but locked up the mass-market entertainment options for subscription video-on-demand services.

In their wake, a flurry of more targeted services have surfaced. Today, there’s no shortage of over-the-top SVOD services from startups and well-heeled media conglomerates trying to gratify individual desires away from the traditional world of pay TV.

Turner is trying to appeal to film aficionados with FilmStruck. NBCUniversal’s Seeso is shooting for laughs. And Shudder, owned by AMC Networks, hinges on horror.

Even Amazon, which is becoming an SVOD kingmaker of sorts with its ever-expanding Amazon Channels aggregation service, has launched a niche service of its own, called Anime Strike, that takes aim at Crunchyroll, a standard bearer in the OTT sector.

But consumer buying habits indicate that many of these focused SVOD services face an uphill battle as they look to lure in enough customers to drive significant scale.

This struggle for scale could, ironically, play into the hands of traditional MVPDs, which are starting to integrate and monetize complementary OTT services and already have direct relationships with millions of consumers.

The average U.S. broadband home now subscribes to between one and two SVOD services, according to a new study from Parks Associates. And though 60% of those homes subscribe to some sort of video-streaming service, just 10% of those households — a group of “avid viewers” — take more than two, Glenn Hower, senior analyst at Parks Associates, said.

Simply “finding the audience” is a big challenge for any SVOD service that’s not Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime, Hower said.

Another complication is creating a business with a competitive price that can turn a tidy profit. Parks’s research pins the average spending on an OTT SVOD service at about $8 per month.

“There are some instances where services are getting more creative with their business models,” Hower said. OTT services such as Hulu and CBS All Access, for example, offer both ad-free tiers and ones that are supplemented by commercials.

SVODs are using an array of tactics and strategies to help them stand apart, creating new forms of aggregation services, service packaging and bundling, special perks, and forging a sense of community among like-minded viewers.

“For us, a big learning has been that you kind of have to do everything,” Matt Hullum, CEO of Rooster Teeth, a digital-first content studio focused on comedy and gaming, said. “We’ve embraced the concept of making our service more of an experience … a more well-rounded, holistic experience for our audience and our community.”

Rooster Teeth has also doubled down on offering ancillary benefits that are fine-tuned to its viewership. Last year, it launched a two-tier strategy, with subscriptions tailored to its core fans and to “superfans” willing to pay a premium for extras, such as VIP tickets to Rooster Teeth events.

The higher-end offering, called Double Gold, costs $34.99 per month and offers 10% discounts on Rooster Teeth merchandise and a monthly box of goodies that’s valued at more than $60.

The approach appears to be working, as Rooster Teeth’s paid subscriber base has about doubled in about a year and now sits above 200,000. That’s in addition to the 28 million who subscribe to its YouTube network and the 3 million visitors to its RoosterTeeth.com hub.

“We have a definitive audience, but I wouldn’t say it’s a niche audience. It’s not a small group,” Hullum said.

Developing and offering strong content is still critically important, but interacting with the community and offering opportunities that go beyond that content is key to establishing a stickier experience, he said.

SVOD services are also trying to stand apart by allowing users to download videos so viewers can watch without a high-speed Internet connection, Dan Taitz, chief operating officer of Penthera Partners, said. “It’s not a replacement for or substitute for streaming, but a great add-on for consumers,” he said.

And it’s an add-on that’s getting added on more frequently. Amazon Prime has been offering downloads for years, and Netflix recently added that option for certain pieces of content, including many of its original series.

“The tide is shifting so that it [downloading] is more standard,” Taitz said. Penthera, which makes a video-downloading platform called “Cache & Carry” that counts Comcast among its customers, is in talks with several SVOD services about adding offline viewing to the mix, he said.

While those players will need to integrate a downloading capability into their streaming platform, obtaining the rights for downloading is the bigger issue for some OTT services. “But I think the content owners are coming around,” Taitz said.

SVOD In the Age of Aggregation

While a sense of community and special perks are luring SVOD subs, those services are also looking to a tried-and-true tactic from the traditional pay TV world — packaging and aggregation — to help move the needle.

Among the standout examples of this are Amazon Channels, an option from Amazon Prime that debuted in late 2015, and VRV, a newer offering from Ellation (a portfolio company of Otter Media, the OTT joint venture of AT&T and The Chernin Group) focused on a core anime audience with adjacencies into areas like gaming, science fiction and animation.

Amazon Channels has already expanded to about 100 SVOD partners, including recent additions of HBO and Cinemax, from the 30-plus that were on board at launch.

Amazon hasn’t put an exact figure on the performance of Amazon Channels, but said Prime members now have “millions” of video subscriptions through the service.

The performance of Amazon Channels so far is “a validation of this platform idea,” Michael Paull, vice president, digital video at Amazon, said, noting that it presents consumers with “one simple, integrated experience” that does not require subscripers to hop from app to app.

“As we’re seeing this evolution of the TV space, we’ve been very, very focused on providing a great experience and reducing pain points,” he said.

DISCOVERABILITY IS KEY

Amazon Channels will continue to expand, Paull said. “I don’t see a ceiling on the number of services that we would want on our platform,” he said, saying Amazon is in a unique spot because it has a large customer base and access to data that enables it to craft targeted marketing messages and match consumers to SVOD services that fit their interests.

Bundling SVOD services and being able to match them to the consumer “is a tremendously powerful marketing concept,” Colin Dixon, founder and chief analyst of nScreenMedia, said. “Discoverability” is a major issue that new and more niche-focused SVOD services need to overcome, though, he added.

“Our vision is to offer a complete over-the-top video solution, where we provide the most choice through the widest selection of the best content all in one experience,” Paull said.

That strategy varies greatly from the one being implemented by VRV, which focuses on services that connect with fans of anime, gaming and animation.

In addition to selling those SVOD services individually, VRV also offers a deeply discounted bundle though a “Combo Pack” that combines eight services for $9.99 per month — Crunchyroll, Mondo, Funimation, Rooster Teeth, Cartoon Hangover, Nerdist, Geek & Sundry and Tested. Those networks would cost a total of more than $33 if purchased individually.

VRV is also selling those services, as well as Ginx, Machinima, Rifftrax, Seeso and Shudder, on an a la carte basis. Of that group, Cartoon Hangover and Mondo are exclusive to VRV.

VRV soft-launched its service late last year and expects to ratchet up marketing efforts this year. It hasn’t disclosed any subscriber numbers.

“We’re definitely exceeding our expectations,” Mike Aragon, VRV’s general manager, said. “We’re seeing great usage across all of the channels.”

The budding SVOD aggregation service will also be looking to gain more traction in the coming weeks by adding an account-linking feature could help to expose existing subscribers from services like Crunchyroll to VRV’s broader subscription slate and bundle.

Dixon is also a fan of VRV’s decision to stay focused with a service that’s designed to “superserve one set of consumers.”

But one lingering question hanging about VRV’s approach — and all newcomers to the space — is how it makes money through its deeply discounted bundle.

“We have a very unique way of looking at the economics,” Aragon said, adding that the plan for now is to band together with partners and focus on growth and engagement with the new platform. “We’re confident that we’ll have a healthy and profitable business. SVOD services are about scale. Our message to our partners is: ‘Let’s get to scale and let’s get to scale together.’ ”

VRV is initially offered in the U.S., but has plans to launch internationally, “With the fan base we’re targeting and serving, there are no borders for that,” Aragon said.

Some SVODs see bundling as an ancillary, but not necessarily core, method to bring more subscribers on board.

Rooster Teeth is among the first SVODs to work with VRV. “We really like it in the sense that it gets us on a lot more platforms instantaneously that we aren’t able to access right away,” Hullum said. “It helps us get connected to new audiences that may not have noticed us before. For us, [VRV] is a good first opportunity to try out bundling.”

CuriosityStream, the nonfiction-focused SVOD service launched in mid-2015 by Discovery Communications founder John Hendricks, sells its service directly and through Amazon Channels.

Most subscribers are still being obtained directly, though a smaller portion of them find the Amazon Channels process easier, Elizabeth Hendricks North, CuriosityStream’s CEO, said.

“It’s been a healthy partnership for us,” she said of the Amazon Channels deal. “It’s been positive on our end.”

Despite the benefits of bundling, having a direct relationship with customers remains critically important. Prescription: Nutrition, a docuseries from CuriosityStream that went live earlier this month, was created because it was the top vote-getter when customers were asked to weigh in on possible new series.

“This direct relationship [with the audience] … is important because you can create content that speaks directly to them,” Hendricks North said.

DramaFever, the U.S.-based SVOD service that specializes in Korean TV and films and other international fare, has also turned to Amazon Channels to help drive more exposure. But instead of tapping Amazon Channels to offer the full SVOD service, it’s using that conduit to market DramaFever Instant, a version that offers a subset of the service’s full library.

The idea there is to provide a smaller sampling of the service, and hope it also entices some to upgrade to DramaFever’s primary SVOD service, Tim Lee, DramaFever’s director of licensing, said.

DramaFever on Set-Tops?

The surging SVOD market has largely been the domain of the retail OTT platforms. But pay TV providers are starting to get into the act.

TiVo, for example, already integrates services like Netflix and Hulu into its MSO-supplied platform. Dish Network has also taking similar steps on its broadband-connected Hopper DVRs, and Comcast has started down that path by integrating Netflix with X1.

DramaFever, acquired by Warner Bros. last year, is also in talks to integrate its SVOD service on MVPD set-tops, Lee said.

Dixon believes that pay TV operators must open up their platforms to OTT because consumers can and will go outside that universe to seek out the content they want. “Operators have an excellent opportunity to do what Amazon is doing for their customers,” he said. “But to do it, they have to move to a more open model. In my mind, the most important thing Comcast could do is … to get [its] guide on everybody’s television. That’s their anchor. If they’re not the guide, then Amazon is the guide, and they get all the incremental revenue.”

Although two to three over-the-top SVOD services appears to be where most households max out, the threshold may rise as more video dollars move away from traditional pay TV.

“Then, it’s a different calculation,” Dixon said.

Read more TCA '16 coverage.

Beverly Hills, Calif. -- NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said during his executive session at TCA summer press tour that a major expansion of the network's OTT offerings is likely a couple of months away.

“I’m not ready to talk about anything definitive, but hopefully in the next couple months we’ll have something to talk about, which could be really exciting," he said. CBS recently announced it has racked up 2 million subscribers to stand-alone services from CBS and Showtime, and ABC last spring dramatically expanded its Watch ABC app's programming.

"We’re in a unique position because our sister company is a cable company and the OTT strategy is a competitive take from what the cable business is," Greenblatt said of Comcast-owned NBCUniversal. "Whatever we do in that space, we want to do something that is not an affront to the cable business or distributors. So we’re trying to craft something that is a good thing for them as well. So we’re not there yet, but hopefully in the very near future we’ll have something to talk about. In the meantime, we’re doing a lot of toe in the water approaches," such as full streaming of Olympic events and targeted SVODs like the comedy-themed Seeso.

Read more atB&C.

After riding a solid wave of growth, the U.S. video streaming market is for the first time showing signs of saturation, according to a new study and forecast from Strategy Analytics.

Per the study, U.S. consumers will spend $6.62 billion on video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu this year. While that represents a $1.19 billion (22%) increase compared to 2015, it also marks the first time that the amount spent on those services will be lower than the previous year’s increase of $1.21 billion.

Though that change is relatively small, “its direction is extremely significant,” Michael Goodman, digital media director at Strategy Analytics, said. “It shows that, whilst actual market saturation is a few years off yet, the domestic U.S. streaming subscription market is now on the backside of the adoption curve.”

He expects the incremental increase in annual spending on streaming services will decline from this point on.

Goodman notes that nearly 60% of U.S. broadband homes subscribe to a video streaming service. “We put market saturation at 85% of broadband households – similar to saturation levels for pay TV. Within five years, annual growth will fall below 8%,” he said.

According to Strategy Analytics, Netflix has a commanding 53% of the market, ahead of Amazon Prime Video (25%) and Hulu (13%), and estimates that nearly 40% of U.S. homes subscribing to a video streaming service take at least two.

These signs of saturation in the U.S. market will cause the major OTT SVOD players – Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu – to pursue new growth strategies. Netflix, which already leads the U.S. market, is already pushing ahead with an aggressive global expansion. Amazon has been less aggressive outside the U.S. with its Prime service, but its recent decision to offer a standalone OTT service could pave the way for a broader international move. Hulu sold its Japan business in 2014, but is preparing to launch a multichannel TV service with a slimmed-down lineup aimed at consumers who are not interested in traditional pay TV services.

While Hulu's plans for a virtual MVPD service will open up a new line of business, Goodman also believes that Hulu will also have to look beyond the U.S. for growth opportunities.

While trends indicate that the larger SVOD players will find growth harder to achieve in the coming years, Goodman believes there’s ample opportunity for complementary, more niche-oriented SVOD services that cost $2 to $5 per month to gain ground in the market.

A prime example, Goodman said, is Seeso, the new comedy service from NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises that costs $3.99 per month.

Since not all streaming service report revenues and subscriber information, Strategy Analytics’  model is based on a mix of public data and survey data. In all, more than 100 lines of code are fed into the model, according to Goodman.

More detail on the study will be featured in the Next TV section of the May 30 edition of Multichannel News. 

Boston – Netflix, Amazon and Hulu set the stage for OTT-delivered subscription VOD services, but a massive wave of more focused, genre-based has emerged to reach a more targeted audience, and that wave is only expected to get bigger.

That was a big focus here Tuesday (May 17) in a session titled, “Single and Loving It: The Who, How and Why of Standalone SVOD."

The benefits of this approach is that services can be created to target the “super fan” and serve an audience in a unique way that broader SVOD services don’t offer, said Martin Keely, GM of subscription platforms at Fullscreen, which recently launched a $4.99 per month SVOD service.

“We’re just getting started,” he said.

Seth Laderman, EVP and GM of Comic-Con HQ, likened the rapidly expanding SVOD market to a “race,” as everyone attempts to build and launch services for specific audiences, and then get those viewers to actually pay.

But he said there’s some risk involved in targeting niches, because those viewers will also be looking to find similar content from other sources.

There’s an “endless appetite” for premium content, so providers need to rein it in with a curated service,  Ben McLean, SVP of business operations and strategy, digital, at NBCUniversal and Seeso, the new comedy-focused SVOD service, said.

He said offering limitless choice works if viewers know what they want to watch. With Seeso, he said, “We want to [offer] a highly curated, highly-programmed environment” that can engage an audience quickly.

“Seeso is our first swing at this,” McLean said, calling its comedy focus a “large niche.” And expect more. NBCU, he added, is also “looking at digital opportunities across the landscape.”

“There are no more gatekeepers,” said Tom Pickett, CEO of Ellation, a company that produces, designs and helps to market services/brands like Crunchyroll, an Anime-focused service with more than 700,000 paid subs, and Creativebug, a service for craft enthusiasts.

But he agreed that the downside of this second stage of SVOD is the amount of choice and fragmentation in the market, which makes it difficult for a new service to breakout from the pack.

And the technology that underpins these services is as key as the content, David Mowrey, VP of product management at Clearleap, said, noting that more than 100 standalone SVOD services have been stood up over the past nine months.

Not everyone has the resources of  a Netflix to build in all the content protection, interfaces, analytics and billing support. “It’s an extremely challenging thing for a standalone service,” he said. “You need a solid technology partner to do that.”

And the core video service is just one element of these services. To gain and retain customers, SVOD providers must think about “dimensions that go well beyond the video,” Pickett said.

In the case of Crunchyroll, the service is building in additional perks and benefits. One example is its partnership with a service called Loot Crate, which a mystery box of four to six pop culture items. Loot Crate, Pickett said, recently launched a new box focused on Anime, so Crunchyroll offers its subs a $5 discount for it.

Amazon Video said Seeso, NBCUniversal’s subscription OTT comedy service, is now available to Prime members for an additional $3.99 per month.

Seeso announced last month that it would become part of the Amazon mix in the “coming weeks."  Seeso launched on January 7 and has not released viewership numbers, but the Amazon deal will open up a new way to acquire subscribers.

Seeso is one of a growing number of OTT providers to join Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program, a service launched late last year that handles elements such as subscriber acquisition, billing (using the subscriber’s credit cards that are on file with Amazon), customer service, content delivery via Amazon’s streaming infrastructure, and device compatibility management.

Seeso will compete with other comedy-focused offerings available via Amazon Prime, including Comedy Central Stand-Up Plus and Comedy Dynamics, which each cost $3.99 per month.

Other Amazon streaming partners include Showtime, Starz, Acorn TV, CuriosityStream, DramaFever, Shudder, Urban Movie Channel, and FlixFling, among others.

Seeso, the over-the-top subscription comedy channel from NBCUniversal’s Digital Enterprises unit, will soon have another retail sales outlet: Amazon Prime.

Seeso said it will be available in the “coming weeks” for an additional $3.99 per month via Amazon Prime, the $99 per year service from Amazon that features a large video streaming library, free two-day shipping and other perks.

Seeso is one of the latest OTT providers to jump on board Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program,  a service launched late last year that handles elements such as subscriber acquisition, billing (using the subscriber’s credit cards that are on file with Amazon), customer service, content delivery via Amazon’s streaming infrastructure, and device compatibility management. Other partners include Showtime, Starz, Acorn TV, Comedy Central Stand-Up Plus, CuriosityStream, DramaFever, Shudder and Urban Movie Channel, and FlixFling, among others.

Seeso also sells its ad-free service on a direct, standalone basis (also for $3.99 per month, proving access to a library of about 2,000 hours of programming) via several platforms, including Web browsers, iOS and Android mobile devices, Roku players and Roku TVs and the Amazon Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick.

Seeso launched commercially on January 7 and has not announced subscriber numbers, but the Amazon Prime partnership could give it more opportunities via the popular e-commerce platform.

“With Seeso’s monthly subscription on Amazon Video, viewers now will have even more ways to access our unmatched library of comedy programming,” Ben McLean, NBCU’s SVP, digital enterprises business operations & strategy, said in a statement. “As the first standalone comedy offering, we’re excited to expand our reach to the Amazon Video community, giving them the best premium content – Original Series, stand-up specials and library video—across every screen.”

Seeso, the over-the-top comedy channel from NBCUniversal’s Digital Enterprises unit, has made a TV connection following the launch of apps for Roku streaming players, integrated Roku TVs, and Amazon Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick. 

Seeso, an ad-free service that sells for $3.99 and was launched commercially on January 7, also is offered on the Web at www.seeso.com and on iOS and  Android mobile devices.

Seeso said it will extend support to more platforms in the coming months.

The service currently offers access to more than 2,000 hours of content, including originals such as The UCB Show, Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane, and  The Cyanide & Happiness Show,  as well as NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and digitally-remastered series such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Kids in the Hall.  

On deck is Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, a semi-scripted comedy series/reality show spoof slated to debut on March 17.  Here’s the trailer:

Following a free preview of Seeso, NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises’ new OTT comedy channel will officially launch on Jan. 7, 2016, and sell for $3.99 per month.

Seeso is in the midst of a month-long, Web-only free beta period that started December 3. The service, which will start with more than 2,000 hours of original content, will initially be offered on the Web at www.seeso.com, and on iOS and  Android mobile devices.

"We think the world needs more laughter, so we put together what we think is the best collection of comedy in one place. Come, seeso for yourself,” said Evan Shapiro, EVP, NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises, in a statement.

Seeso will kick off with a handful of original series, including The UCB Show, Dave and Ethan: Lovemakers, Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts lane,Before the Morning After, and The Cyanide & Happiness Show, stand-up specials from Matt Besser and Rory Scovel, and, as well as live stream The Guest List: Live From The Barrel House on Jan. 13 at 10 pm ET.

The service will also feature a vault of library content, including remixed HD editions of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, 30 Rock, Fawlty Towers, Parks and Recreation, Saved By the Bell, and The IT Crowd, along with next-day access to full-length episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonand Late Night with Seth Meyers, as well as “40 plus years” of Saturday Night Live.

Seeso, the subscription OTT comedy channel in the works from NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises, said it will kick off a month-long, Web-only, free Beta period on December 3.

The service, set to launch in January, will cost $3.99 per month.

Seeso is billing the beta as a free sneak peek of its mix of comedies, exclusive shows (including The UCB Show from Upright Citizens Brigade founders Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts and Matt Besser), curated films and classic stand-up performances. During the beta period, the service will also feature next day, full length episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and 40-plus years of Saturday Night Live.

Consumers can tap in by registering their email address at www.seeso.com. Seeso said it will offer a limited number of beta memberships on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Beta members that make the cut will be able to stream a live stand-up special on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 10 p.m. ET featuring comics from the last season of Last Comic Standing --  finalists Ian Bagg, Andy Erikson and Michael Palascak, and winner Clayton English.

“It’s like the soft-opening of a restaurant,” said Evan Shapiro, EVP of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises, in a statement. “Everything is free, while you try out Seeso, sample our great classic comedy and get a taste of our exclusive original series. We think our stuff can help you laugh better, and we want you to Seeso for yourself. But, just like the soft-opening of any new neighborhood club, space is limited and we might ask for your patience while we work out our service.”

NBCU expects to launch the service in January on multiple streaming platforms and connected devices, and through other, yet unnamed distribution partners.