Comcast is partnering with Green Day to provide on-demand viewing of the band’s new single “Know Your Enemy,” as well as live performances from a recent concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland, Calif. The clips were part of 30 Green Day videos that Comcast provided its customers on demand.
It’s the latest in the cable giant’s efforts to establish its on-demand video service as destination for music video debuts, by creating high-definition video packages showcasing top recording artists.
In March, the company provided customers with on-demand access to the video for U2’s single “Get On Your Boots,” along with about 50 other videos and concert clips featuring the band that customers could access through their cable set-top box. Comcast also posted 20 U2 videos at Comcast.net/music.
Derek Harrar, senior VP and GM of video services at Comcast recently sat down with Billboard to discuss these efforts.
What does it take for an artist to get the special treatment, like U2 and Green Day? What are the elements needed to bring to the table?
It has to do with the profile of the band in question. And it also has to do with whether or not they have something to promote. Whenever we do a partnership, the way we structure it is to make it a win-win, meaning: really compelling for our customers, but also trying to achieve some strategy objective. In the case of U2 and Green Day, they both were launching new albums. We’re really good at helping them find a new way to access their customer base that takes advantage of high-def.
How do fans find out about this? What kind of promotion are you doing?
We did a dedicated [commercial] spot with both U2 and Green Day and that will run across all the cable channels for awareness. We also will do some banners in the guide, and from a PR perspective we have an aggressive online blog posting exercise to get the word out more organically.
What were the results of the U2 exclusive?
What I can tell you is that it was more views and more hours viewed than anything else we ever had in on-demand music. It was very complete; 50 videos available in both standard and high-def. Everything was available. And beyond that, we have a user base that really understands that on-demand is a great place to consume music content. You put that together and you have a perfect storm.
What’s the business model?
The hallmark of on-demand is the free content. Only about 5-10% is for pay. So with the music category, it appeals to a focused demographic – kids. If you want to attach economics to it, the way we think about it is churn reduction. We know that active users in on-demand are half as likely to churn.
Aside from the economics, what other strategies drive the on-demand music program?
We want to be the HD leader in everything. That’s our goal and vision, and we program against that very aggressively. Whether that’s U2 and Green Day videos, or getting all 22 Bond movies available. Last year when “American Gangster” came into our window, we went back to the studios and got access to all three “Godfather” movies, “A Bronx Tale,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino” and put it together into a really compelling promotion around gangster movies. Our goal is not just to have the most content per se, our goal is to have the most content and make it compelling to our customers through creative programming.
What have you learned about how subscribers use the music on-demand service?
We found a few years ago that there were a lot of cases where the average duration of a view would exceed the duration of the asset. So let’s say it’s a five-minute song, but it was open for 10 minutes. We thought there might be something wrong with our reporting platform. So we did an audit and did focus groups and research, and found that this was due to teenagers rewinding and replaying dance moves to they can learn them. Once they start to use it, they make it their own and use it their own way.
