How Saban Brands strategic partnership with Netflix works

[Dizagaox2]

It seems many people are confused by Saban Brands new partnership with Netflix, which they're starting off with their upcoming big budget kids series "Cirque Du Soleil – Luna Petunia". So to simplify it, here's how it works:

1. Saban Brands is producing the show in association with Cirque Du Soleil Media.

2. Netflix is the exclusive broadcaster of the show worldwide, and it will broadcast under the "Netflix Original Series" banner. However, they do not own the series or have any stake in it.

3. Netflix will be streaming the show in 11-episode batches starting in September 2016, plus special episodes ad-hoc. If all goes to plan, there will be 30 to 40 episodes a year, each 22 minutes or longer.

4. Saban Brands and its licensing partners will be launching merchandise in waves to tie in with each batch of episodes.

5. To ensure the "Cirque Du Soleil – Luna Petunia" brand gets maximum exposure, despite being streaming-only, Saban Brands will be doing off-platform marketing for the series in addition to just having the show on Netflix. This includes a comprehensive consumer products line, interactive digital content and a potential live tour produced by Cirque De Soleil. Adverts will also run across all children's television, despite the show not being on television, and there will be things like home video releases for non-Netflix subscribers.

The above is how Saban Brands is bypassing traditional television networks to launch their big new blockbuster franchise. "Cirque Du Soleil – Luna Petunia" is bigger than Power Rangers from both a cost perspective (the show is lavishly complicated to animate) and the potential profit to be made off of it, as it's pure merchandisable pre-school entertainment targeting BOTH girls and boys equally.

So when people like myself anticipate Power Rangers moving to streaming-only, it comes from a logical place, because Saban Brands is already do it with their other potentially-more-lucrative IPs.

You only need to look at how Dino Charge is being binge-broadcast in major markets like the UK to see Saban Brands doesn't actually care if the show broadcasts overtime or all-in-one-go.

http://www.sabanbrands.com/entertainment/luna-petunia/

[Titanium321]

The context is important here. Meaning PR and Cirque de Solei are two very different brands that are not interchangeable in any way. You can't expect them to be treated the same with broadcast.

[Pepper]

Of course they're different brands but both are kids shows with merchandise. If one works on Netflix with 40 22 minute episodes per year why wouldn't the other?
PR has already proven that exceptionally long seasons work for it, so there's no problem from the production side of things, they can easily do it and if Netflix can and is willing to broadcast a 40 episode season then I really don't see how you can be so sure why it wouldn't work.

Orange is the new Black and Daredevil are very different not interchangeable brands too (a female centric prison drama and a marvel superhero show don't have much in common on paper) but treating them equally when it comes to broadcast seems to work well so far.
The entire history of broadcasting is full of such examples so I don't see how declaring that they're different is an argument against a similar or even identical broadcast model.

[rmssw]

Saban has already renewed their partnership with Nickelodeon twice. The scheduling sucks but it's by far the most exposure the show could get. The only way Saban would move is if Nick decided to drop the show and why would they? It's an established brand that brings in consistent ratings and doesn't cost them a cent to produce. They get handed a fully produced show that brings in 1-2 million viewers reliably with no risk to them whatsoever. Ultimately, Saban can live with the asinine two-year adaptations if it means staying on a high profile network.

[Pepper]

Netflix doesn't release numbers, how do we know what exposure they could provide or not?

Nickelodeon may reach 90 million households in the US but Dino Charge had less than two million viewers on Nickelodeon for every new episode so far, is it unreasonable that it might reach a similar number of people on Netflix? Netflix is in tens of millions of households too.

[rmssw]

Ratings have never been the biggest issue, though. It's always been and always will be toy sales. There's no precedent for a show that exists primarily to sustain an established and successful major line of toys moving to Netflix. Luna Petunia can't be the guinea pig you guys want it to be because it's not even close to being on the same level of Power Rangers' merchandising presence and never could be.

[Titanium321]

They're not just kids shows with merchandise though. Cirque de Solei is new, kind of more of a girls show, and not built around being a toy commercial. Power Rangers is built for commercials, it is designed around broadcast, not just for its own merchandise, but advertisers as well.

The episode length isn't really an issue at all. It's the entire business model has to change to adapt to Netflix. For seemingly no reason either. Sure, Netflix could pick up PR, that's not impossible. But why? Why would they change up the model? There's more benefit to being on television right now than being streamed only.

[Pepper]

Maybe PR could set the precedent? I still don't see how you guys can be so sure that PR would not have enough exposure on Netflix. Maybe it wouldn't have but saying so without any numbers is just guessing.

Right now? Sure. But it's not like a potential move would happen right now, it would be in a few years at the earliest imo. Doesn't the current contract with Nick run through 2018? Or hasn't it been renewed yet?

What if Nickelodeon doesn't renew the contract with Saban? There's no guarantee they will. Even if Saban prefers the show being on Nickelodeon if they don't want it then what?
Disney XD? They didn't even want it when Disney actually owned it. Cartoon Network? Very unlikely. The Hub? Does that even exist anymore?

Netflix could easily become the best bet should Nick drop it, less exposure be damned, it could be that or nothing.

[Titanium321]

Why should it set the precedent though? The only reason I see anyone having for moving to Netflix is just that they don't like the airing schedule on Nick, which is fair.

It's not that it can't go, it's that why should it?

[PRdude]

It seems like people want PR away from Nickelodeon so bad, they get their hopes us for anything.