Nevins at TCA: Streaming ‘Actually Changing Everything’

It certainly didn’t go unnoticed that Amazon and Netflix did well at the Golden Globes Sunday night vs premium cable nets. But the changing TV landscape is obviously about a lot more than awards competition from OTT players; it’s about a fundamental shift in the relationship between content and its audience, suggested Showtime pres/CEO David Nevinsat TCA on Monday. “We know who you are,” he said in reference to Showtime’s OTT app. “It’s incredibly valuable.” The audience data gleaned from such apps can even affect scheduling, with Nevins noting “a huge surge of sign-ups post-Christmas” as people load apps onto new devices they received as gifts. That dynamic has prompted the net to juggle air dates to capitalize. In a post-panel scrum, Nevins said Showtime has been rethinking the entire business as streaming explodes. “There’s pressure for more, so you have more launches,” he said. “It’s actually changing everything. It’s changing our marketing. It does change almost every one of our processes and how we think about marketing, how we think about acquisitions, how we think about PR. It’s all related.” Also vital amid so much scripted TV is standing out from the crowd, Nevins said, with Showtime’s May 21 premiere of the “Twin Peaks” reboot by original creator David Lynchamong the kind of event programming that could drive subscriptions. “The version of Twin Peaks you’re going to see is the pure heroin version of David Lynch, and I’m very excited to be putting that out,” he said. Twin Peaks became a phenomenon during its days on network TV in the early 1990s. And that was before the Internet. “It is for us hard to fathom what Twin Peaks in a social media universe will be, and we’re thrilled for the ride,” said Showtime pres, programming Gary Levine.