Chick-fil-A is said to be starting a streamer as corporations go Hollywood
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Another one, thank you… While major Hollywood streaming services bet on live sports, a possible upstart is putting its money on waffle fries. Chick-fil-A is reportedly planning to launch a streaming platform this year. The 3K-restaurant chicken joint is apparently working with production companies to create “family-friendly” reality shows, game shows, and scripted content. Chick-fil-A tapped an exec behind “X Factor” and “Top Gear” to lead programming that will (probably) feature folks eating nuggets.
Family size: Chick-fil-A’s owners, the Cathy family, aren’t new to entertainment. They’re said to be invested in a major Atlanta studio that’s had contracts with Disney’s Marvel.
The Roostelor: Chick-fil-A could enter reality TV at a time when viewers are hungry for new content: from April to June, reality-TV production in LA plunged 57% YoY.
Decent timing: The five top streamers made $3.2B in the first half of this year, up from a $542M loss in the same period last year.
Going multi-hyphenate… corporation/aspiring filmmaker. With audiences fractured across TV, web, and mobile, ads aren’t hitting like they used to. That has companies trying to grab attention by making content that looks more like TV. Starbucks debuted a content studio in June, and Coke created short films for Amazon last year. Airbnb produced an MTV doc, Lyft made a game show, and last year Bud maker AB InBev rolled out an entertainment division. Even hospitals are calling action: Northwell Health just intro’d a TV-content division.
Streaming doesn’t have to be the main course… It can just be a tasty side hustle. It’s a notoriously difficult business, but it’s probably easier if you’re only making a few game shows about chicken sandwiches, and looking at it as more of an advertising and customer-data play. While it took companies like Paramount and Disney years to make their streaming units profitable, smaller streamers like Dropout TV have managed it much faster. It helps that Chick-fil-A has the money to burn: it pulled in almost $22B in sales last year.