MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1522076
look in America when you want rom-com, comedy, Christmas/holiday movies/shows. And it’s been a serious cable option for primetime viewing with an average of 1M+ viewers, compared to news channels such as Fox News (2M primetime viewers), MSNBC (1M) and CNN (605K). The go-to-channel for feel-good content (especially around the holidays) has even expanded and broadened its programming most recently with a family/friendship/time travel series, The Way Home. Viewership nudges Fox News and surpasses MSNBC and CNN. O.K., the viewership numbers pale in comparison to the Netflix audience (81M, US/Can; 260M global), but you know you’re not going to show something you’ll mumble/fumble to explain to your kids or look at your significant other and say WTF. And if you’re an advertiser that wants to reach/influence a largely middle-of-the-road female audience (25-54) and not harm your brand because of something that appears before or after your ad, it’s a great safe bet/opportunity. But don’t think for a moment that the leading streamers – Netflix, Apple, Amazon – have glossed over the female influencers. They have also increased their family/viewer-friendly content. We didn’t include Disney in the above list because a wide swath of their content has always been female boss and family friendly with their “other” content hosted by Hulu … yes, the mix will change following the acquisition. The content creation/distribution industry is effecting the change ... but it won’t be smooth, won’t be easy. Film industry analyst Stephen Follows addressed the issue a while back noting that the skew between male genre and female genre is almost a rounding error except when it came to musical and romance films vs sci-fi and horror films. The subtle shifting of the population mix (male/female) has also determined the types of shows/movies most of the audience wants to see. The shift has become painfully obvious at the box office where superhero (even female superheroes) and crime films have failed to meet financial expectations. Since they’re operating under the mandate of budget preservation, day/time TV has found that low-cost contest and reality shows have done a better job of keeping their dwindling audience numbers compared to expensive scripted violence. Streamers enjoy the luxury of creating a “balanced” set of films/shows even though most tilt toward the gender that usually controls the selection. Even when the project is a horror or sci-fi film/show, the services lean the content to a less disturbing story line. Either that solves the situation or the couple ends up with two screens and opposite rooms in the house … not fun. To capture more of the mixed audience, the NBA (National Basketball Association) held it’s first male/female three-point contest recently featuring Sabrina Ionescu (WNBA New York Liberties) and Stephen Curry (NBA Golden State Warriors). Ionescu lost by one point and the contest blew it slightly by not having a female moderator also present but the event was still the highlight of the NBA Allstar Weekend (actually, most of the rest of it was roundly panned). It undoubtedly set the stage for another face-off next year. The friendly contest wasn’t an anomaly, it’s proof (at least to us) that people want less hard-edged entertainment and that perhaps female industry professionals might be in an excellent position to deliver it. But this was just a baby step in bringing relevance and equity to