Introduction

For arts organizations looking to reach audiences through online content, there are numerous approaches, including posting subscriber-only content to their websites and posting free videos on platforms like YouTube. In the broader entertainment landscape, streaming via services that aggregate content has become a popular way to watch film and television. This article examines the viability of sharing performing arts content on third-party streaming platforms that aggregate content as opposed to single-entity streaming channels.

Lately, a headline announcing a new performing arts streaming channel seems to pop up every week. Most recently, they have included, “Prompted by the Pandemic, Opera Philadelphia Innovates Online” and “Esa-Pekka Salonen and S.F. Symphony to debut a streaming service meant to go on beyond pandemic.” While the influx of streaming channels in the arts industry has its advantages, it creates an increasingly competitive environment online where organizations must compete for attention and subscriptions from internet-bound audiences. Consolidated content from various organizations on single niche streaming services presents a solution to this but may not be the optimal solution for every organization.

The Video Streaming Landscape

The rise of streaming over the past 15 years has ushered consumers into a world where they have come to expect access to entertainment quickly, easily, and in the comfort of their own homes. At any given moment, one can browse seemingly endless catalogues of film and television through subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, and more. In addition to these services, which charge a premium for unlimited content, other platforms charge per view or offer free content for the price of viewers’ time and patience as they sit through intermittent advertisements.

This is the new normal for consuming video entertainment such as television and film. Meanwhile, in the performing arts industry, Covid-19 restrictions have completely altered the ways organizations—the vast majority of whom historically provided live, in-person events—are able to share their content. Creators have shifted to creating virtual experiences instead, typically by streaming performances. The use of streaming in the performing arts industry, while forced by a pandemic, was inevitable given the rise of streaming in other areas of video entertainment over the last 15 years. While a smattering of performing arts organizations in the U.S. took the steps to embrace streaming before 2020, most of the industry suddenly plunged headfirst into sharing performances digitally when options for live performance were few or completely erased due to restrictions brought on by the pandemic in the U.S. Many continue to grapple with how to best distribute their content virtually, weighing how and where to do so. Currently, organizations tend to offer video streaming either via a single-entity streaming channel, such as an organization’s website, or by partnering with arts-specific subscription streaming aggregators akin to Netflix. Many also use services such as Facebook Live and Crowdcast.

In its analysis of Indigo’s “Act Two” survey, conducted in June and July of 2020 in the U.K., the Audience Agency suggests that the arts-specific streaming service is the more viable model and that performing arts streams should be consolidated onto aggregate platforms. Consolidation allows for related content to be pooled, and the Audience Agency identifies that audiences are more likely to engage with well-curated and targeted online content. The analysis points out that not all organizations can effectively manage their own streaming channels. However, they also acknowledge that the distribution channel ultimately depends on the organization’s circumstances and that streaming on a single-entity platform may end up being the preferred approach for some. Uncovering the best applications of streaming—especially within the continuously shifting landscapes of arts, culture, and entertainment over the past year—will require some experimentation. It is also dependent on the mission and goals of the organization itself.

This article examines the viability of sharing performing arts content on third-party streaming platforms that aggregate content as opposed to single-entity streaming channels. To further tighten the scope, the analysis focuses on video-on-demand streaming (as opposed to livestreaming events) primarily in North America and Europe. Finally, livestreaming and asynchronous offerings via Facebook Live, Instagram TV, or other social media venues are not included as these models are extensions of the organization’s website brand.

CURRENT STREAMING TRENDS IN THE PERFORMING ARTS

A non-exhaustive scan of U.S.-based performing arts organizations representing a range of sizes and genres uncovered that more organizations stream their content via their own websites by embedding links or linking to their videos on YouTube or Vimeo than those that distribute via aggregate streaming platforms. Content includes “behind the scenes” specials, masterclasses, lectures, and panels in addition to recorded performances. There is diversity in how content is monetized and packaged, falling into the categories of free, sometimes ad-supported content; pay-per-view; and subscription-based. Most of the organizations that use subscription models have created an independent streaming channel for their content that is accessible from their own websites.  

However, both for-profit producers and nonprofit organizations are increasingly taking advantage of forming partnerships with third-party aggregators. A recorded performance of “Hamilton” was released on Disney+ in July 2020, and Netflix will be releasing a new musical, “Diana,” based on the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, on their platform in 2021 before it opens on Broadway. More feasible outlets than Disney+ and Netflix do exist and take the form of arts-specific streaming platforms for audiences who are particularly interested in the performing arts and live entertainment. Niche streaming services such as these have been cropping up along with the major streaming platforms, catering to particular audiences interested in unlimited access to specific genres such as horror, arthouse films, British television, etc. 

These subscription-based niche performing arts streaming services for the culturally curious have emerged since streaming became a popular method to share media, but only a handful stand out today. Digital Theatre and Medici.tv are two such European-based subscription streaming services that launched in 2008. Digital Theatre provides “exclusive access to the world’s finest theatre productions,” partnering with Opera North, The Old Vic, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Royal Opera House, among others. Medici.tv claims the title of “The world's leading classical music channel” and has historically focused on classical music but has more recently expanded its catalogue to include ballets, documentaries, and masterclasses as well. These two services have existed for over a decade, highlighting how much farther ahead organizations abroad have been in terms of prioritizing digital strategies for sharing arts content. Organizations in Europe have been incentivized to focus on digitization as a method of creating access to their products: Arts Council England, a government-funded agency in the U.K., began requiring that arts organizations incorporate digital strategies more than 15 years ago. Until 2020, the focus in the U.S. has generally remained on live, in-person experiences. 

Nonetheless, two U.S.-based services have emerged. Launched in the U.K. in 2018 and expanding to the U.S. market in 2020, Marquee TV, a multi-genre arts subscription streaming service newcomer, provides “carefully curated, world-class contemporary and classic theatrical, dance, opera, and music performances from globally renowned artistic powerhouses.” Its videos are presented on-demand for subscribers, a small selection of short videos can be viewed for free, and some events can be livestreamed as pay-per-view ticketed events. Their subscriber count is in the “tens of thousands,” according to Kathleya Afanador, Marquee TV’s Head of Content.

Unsurprisingly, Marquee TV saw a boom in viewership in March due to trends in viewer habits across the entertainment industry as well as its partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company. It acquires content by licensing it from distributors, such as Naxos, and more recently, by partnering directly with those who produce the content. Marquee TV’s U.S. partners currently include Houston Grand Opera, Washington Ballet, and New York City Ballet, among others.  

Another U.S.-based streaming aggregator is OntheBoards.tv, a distributor and streaming service launched in 2010, carving out a space for itself in the contemporary performance scene. It uses pay-per-view and subscription models to monetize its content. Marquee TV subscribers can actually find some OntheBoards.tv content on their platform because OntheBoards.tv does distribute to Marquee TV. 

With the increasing popularity of these third-party streaming aggregators, arts organization may question the viability of reaching audiences on these platforms as opposed to their own single-entity streaming channels. To determine if such a channel is a viable solution for them, organizations should consider how their goals align within the following:

1. Access and information

2. Revenue and sustainability

3. Capacity to manage platform 

Access and information

Expanding access between arts organizations and audiences is the most valuable benefit of distributing content via a third-party streaming aggregator. Marquee TV, for example, provides its partner organizations with audience data. Due to GDPR, the volume and type of data they can share with partners in the E.U. is not as robust, but U.S.-based partners are able to obtain Marquee TV’s audience data, a highly valuable exchange to organizations seeking to increase their understanding of audience behavior and expand their lists of contacts for fundraising and marketing efforts. This aligns with a major benefit of digital distribution in general: access to a global audience, as opposed to an audience bound by geography.

Unlike those organizations using an independent streaming channel (via their own website, for example), an aggregated streaming service not only facilitates but encourages interaction between the audience and organizations with whom they may not be familiar, and these new audience members have the potential to donate or become future ticket-buyers. While these streaming aggregators do not explicitly provide marketing or advertising services for their partners, an organization’s presence on such a platform inherently reaches entirely new audiences as the platform seeks to market itself and generate press. With a subscription, viewers have unlimited access to content on the platform, creating a risk-free environment for sampling new creators or genres that pique their interest, especially if options are generated by the platform as recommended content that is customized to each user.

The very nature of the curated catalogue on aggregate streaming platforms encourages exploration and includes an element of customization to each user, increasing the likelihood that audiences will discover content of particular interest to them and develop long-term interest in those organizations. Marquee TV’s user interface, for example, presents content in various categories on the landing page, which viewers can easily shuffle through. These include “Most Watched,” “Balanchine and Beyond,” “From Around the World,” and “Recommendations For You,” the last category built from user preferences and history. While YouTube, often used by arts organizations to share their video content, does prompt its users to sample suggested content, this platform is more difficult for organizations to monetize and gain insightful data from.

Marquee TV also organizes its content by genre as well as into “Collections,” creating multiple pathways for users to explore content and for organizations to be discovered by interested audiences.  

While single-entity streaming channels certainly expedite the audience’s access to an organization’s product, they are far more limited in reaching new audiences. Exceptions to this argument may be made for organizations who share their content on social media using Facebook or IGTV (though these methods are more difficult to monetize) and for single-entity streaming channels created by performing arts streaming trailblazers and world-renowned producers, such as The Met’s The Met in HD and Berlin Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall, which have been attracting global audiences for over a decade. However, these established channels are in a league of their own. Today, with the sudden influx of digital content, it is likely becoming more difficult for arts organizations to distinguish their streamed content from one another, ultimately increasing competition and hampering each’s ability to expand their audiences online.

Access to audience data and exposure to new audiences frames streaming aggregators as particularly appealing channels for content distribution, but an additional factor to consider is an organization’s goals regarding revenue generation and digital sustainability.   

REVENUE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Covid-19 brought a tidal wave of performing arts video media online as organizations tried to remain present amid shutdowns. As audiences consumed as much digital content as they could handle, this exchange did not necessarily provide a financial pay-off to those organizations. Culture Track’s Culture + Community in a Time of Crisis survey, conducted in the U.S. in May 2020, found that only 14% of respondents paid for access to one or more online activities from arts or culture organizations during the pandemic. Industry professionals have speculated that this influx of free content online sets an expectation that digital culture should be free to watch indefinitely. This presents a problem for organizations who have come to rely on streaming content as a source of revenue and who intend to use streaming to generate revenue in the long-term. After nearly a year of relying on online content, the question remains: what is the most effective method for monetizing on-demand streaming of performing arts events?

Partnering with a third-party streaming aggregator can provide a revenue stream to organizations. Marquee TV, for example, negotiates with its partners to craft agreements that involve either a flat licensing fee, a revenue share (primarily used for those organizations who are doing pay-per-view events on the platform), or—under special circumstances—a hybrid of the two methods in which the platform pays a licensing fee in addition to an arranged revenue share based on viewership. They are willing to negotiate with their partners based on the content’s format, what fees would typically be included in ticket prices, and what the organization brings to the platform. The revenue share model is not uncommon: OntheBoards.tv employs it, in which their participating artists receive 50% of the revenue each time their work is purchased on the platform.

An important factor here is who owns the rights to the work since that party will receive the financial payoff from the streaming platform. Marquee TV typically contracts with companies that produce the works. For instance, Alonzo King LINES Ballet has videos featured on Marquee TV, but the organization receives no direct financial benefit from this; they previously worked with a foreign production company (with consent), who provided the works to Marquee TV. According to the ballet company’s founder, their presence on the platform is valuable in and of itself.

Independent, single-entity streaming channels, as opposed to third-party aggregate streaming services, tend to put a greater share of the revenue per subscriber or per ticket back into the organization’s own pockets. For pay-per-view videos, popular ticketing and streaming software such as ShowTix4u and Ferve charge a flat fee plus a percentage of gross sale per ticket sold for on-demand video streaming. For subscription-based unlimited single-entity streaming, platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo are often used to format and embed videos on the channel. The cost of these services ranges from free to a monthly fee of $75. While YouTube is free, it lacks many of the features clients can access through Vimeo’s range of services. Vimeo’s “Premium” service offers mass storage, the ability for organizations to sell their videos online, and access to assistance with video creation itself. While immediately more profitable per ticket or per subscriber, organizations should consider the financial cost of the additional tools needed to manage their own streaming channels. For example, Seattle Symphony uses InPlayer and Stripe for video monetization and subscriber management for their own streaming channel, Seattle Symphony Live.  

Another element to consider here is how streaming fits into an organization’s business and strategic planning in the long term. Third-party streaming aggregators are seeking long-term, in-depth relationships with organizations. “Partnerships are important for us,” said Afanador, “we think, how could this develop into a longer-term partnership that is useful to us as a business?” Organizations seeking a channel to distribute their content should consider if they want a temporary solution to Covid-19 restrictions—perhaps something with greater financial pay-offs per ticket or subscriptions sold—or a long-term digital presence and sustainability in streaming well beyond the pandemic.

The short- and long-term financial costs associated with third-party aggregators versus single-entity streaming options are important to weigh, but organizations should also consider the additional, non-monetary expenditures as well. 

CAPACITY

Capacity to manage a single-entity streaming channel is another factor that should determine the viability of working with a third-party streaming aggregator for performing arts organizations. Relying on an outside expert in video-on-demand streaming to distribute content can save an organization time and many headaches that accompany managing a streaming platform in-house, including issues of media storage, patron management, and website maintenance. While branding and creative control of the platform could be appealing to some organizations, they should also weigh staff capacity to manage the platform and its services. 

Another capacity piece to consider is content production. The Audience Agency’s analysis of Indigo’s “Act 2” survey found that the most popular digital performance formats tend to be those specifically created for online consumption, indicating that intentional, high-quality production of recorded performances is crucial for the video-on-demand streaming space. While Marquee TV is not currently a production company, it has been a present partner to these organizations to ensure that they are providing high-quality, interesting video content for their platform. It is worth noting that Marquee TV does have co-commissions in the works, working with organizations to produce content. Looking forward, such co-production opportunities may become more common. OntheBoards.tv, on the other hand, does provide a film crew to capture live performances and edit collaboratively with its partnering artists before publishing the content to its platform.

An organization’s capacity to capture high-quality, visually interesting content should be accounted for in determining how and where to distribute it. No matter if the content is located on an aggregate or single-entity streaming platform, high-quality production is essential to the successful reception of the video, and the opportunity to partner with a third-party aggregator with the capacity and expertise to help produce and distribute videos for streaming may be valuable.  

CONCLUSION

Regardless of an organization’s size, it should identify its goals in terms of audience access and information, revenue and sustainability, and capacity to a manage streaming their content when determining the viability of distributing their videos on a third-party streaming aggregator as opposed to via a single-entity channel. Partnership with an aggregate streaming service may be a viable option for those who:

1. Prioritize expanding their audiences, access to them, and their data 

2. Seek a long-term partnership founded on a revenue-share model or annual licensing fee rather than temporary experimentation in streaming that aims for the highest financial pay-off in the short-term 

3. Do not wish to maintain a streaming platform for themselves and are willing to relinquish creative control of the distribution channel

These guidelines may help an organization determine the most viable outlet for their digital content at this time. However, as the digital and arts landscapes continue to shift, organizations need not limit themselves to one approach over another. The London Symphony Orchestra uses a hybrid approach: it releases concerts on Marquee TV and posts free content on its YouTube channel regularly. Partnering with a third-party aggregator to stream content is relatively low risk for organizations and can supplement any existing distribution methods. This begs the question, why aren’t all performing arts organizations pursing partnerships with platforms that consolidate content across the sector?

In the current environment, the answer to this question lies in the fact that there are few existing platforms like Marquee TV in addition to the very nature of such a platform: it is not an endless archive of content but rather a carefully curated catalogue of performances. According to Afanador, when it comes to content acquisition, Marquee TV is looking at subscriber acquisition and retention: “Certain content we know are going to be tentpole acquisition pieces…so these are the very recognizable names…titles that are going to create press to generate visibility as a platform and bring in the type of people who we think could be our subscribers.” In addition to partners that will generate press, attract viewers, and drive subscriptions for the platform, they also look to represent depth and breadth across genres. Arts organizations who can provide unique or highly marketable content will have the most luck in creating partnerships with third-party streaming aggregators.

For organizations who do not currently fit within this vision but want to distribute and monetize their content on a third-party aggregator, will more arts streaming platforms, such as OntheBoards.tv, emerge? It is possible that more will come up in the next decade given the success of subscription-based streaming for other entertainment. Until then, organizations who pursue a single-entity streaming channel will continue engaging primarily with their current audiences (which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if solidifying and maintaining a digital audience is a priority), while those who pursue partnerships with third-party aggregators will likely expand their audience reach. 

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