5Qs with Showtime evp Mark Greenberg

What’s the impetus behind your 3rd SVOD service Flix on Demand? We feel it’s time to offer more choice and control to consumers; we feel Flix is the next step in this evolution. Flix has been a solid brand for us, and this will give it more of a boost, more of a presence. Plus, our clients have been asking for it. But why not just bundle all your VOD offerings in 1 place, under a single brand? The reality is the way consumers consume is they want things spread out. We think this will make it easier for them to access our stuff. We can’t imagine too many consumers even know that Flix is brought to them by Showtime. Will you do something about that? That’s a fair question; we’ve had discussions, you know, ‘Flix by Showtime,’ cross promotion, etc. While [Flix] is a standalone brand now, we certainly could come back and explore that at some time. 10 years from now, will VOD be ubiquitous and we’ll forget about linear channels? I bet you could have asked that same question years ago when pay TV came along and people asked whether movies in theaters would become obsolete. Every time we add an enhancement it doesn’t obliterate a way of exhibiting the products. It becomes supplementary. As a diehard Mets fan, how do they look? They’ll win more than they did last year, but how many depends on the bullpen.