A New Kind Of Bundle

Streamers, you got a new competitor coming your way - Weekend Wrap Up Edition - Week 6/2025

Feb 15, 2025

Sending this edition later than usual because it’s the Winter break y’all. Kids with the grandparents, parents ready to work hard and have fun! 🕺🏻But first let’s dive into what’s been cooking in media this week: a dash of YouTube, a pinch of Creator Media and a spoon of AI plus a few additional secret ingredients.

💰 YouTube Channel Memberships

Yeah yeah YouTube is TV but while we’re all focused on this, Neal Mohan included a super interesting stat about the growth of channel memberships. What are those? It’s the “Join” button taking you to a paid subscription to your favourite channel. As I wrote here and here, YouTube is dead serious about growing both ad and subscription revenues. We should pay MORE attention to this trend.

→ Here’s how Channel 4 goes about it with its mashed YouTube channel.

🇫🇷 How’s Max in France?

2026 will bring 3 major launches for Max in Europe (UK/IE, Italy and Germany) following the end of the Sky-WBD HBO output deal. France was the 1st of this post-output deal launches. To me, this was WBD’s most challenging launch to date. 7 months later, let’s see where they’re at.

👧🏻 Figuring Out Kids Media

Kids media group, Cricket Media, bought streaming outlet Sensical from Common Sense Networks.

→ Here’s what I like about this deal: Common Sense Media is a non profit (while Common Sense Networks is for profit) with a mission to build technology with kids in mind. Launching Sensical, a safe free video streaming environment for kids, needed to be done but my take is they would better serve the kids media community by having no skin in the game and instead continue building a toolbox to empower kids media on a similar mission. Meanwhile, Cricket brings a library of IP Sensical really needs; Sensical gets Cricket in streaming.

🧰 What’s On Video Techies’ Minds?

What’s the biggest challenge experienced with video technology today? Ad insertion (+33% YoY). What’s the biggest opportunity for innovation? Advertising. Free streaming = full of promises but plagued by challenges (conjectural and technical).

→ Have a read at the full report by Bitmovin to understand what’s on the mind of video technology executives.

🚨 Creator Television

or “Creator TV”, a Creator-Led FAST Channel to bring Social Video storytelling to Streaming TV. Loving this move by the team at Sabio especially as they‘re stepping out of their comfort zone (it’s an ad technology and services leader). Surely they’ve seen demands from their brand partners to make such a move.

🇪🇺 What’s Streaming In Europe?

Digital-i is spoiling us again this week. After their insights into YouTube’s love for long-form, they just released the Top Streaming Titles of 2024 in Europe. My favourite one is the season completion-rate angle, I’m curious about the methodology but definitely data I’ve loved to see more of.

🗣️ A New Kind Of Bundle

I’m loving this announcement by Telco Free x Start up Mistral AI (our hope at having a seat at the AI table). Mistral AI assistant is called : Le Chat (aka The Cat, yes this week you’re brushing up on your French). Free mobile subscribers can take advantage of an exclusive offer on Mistral AI's premium AI assistant: Chat Pro 12 months free, then €17.99/month incl. VAT (i.e. €14.99/month excl. VAT), with no commitment. It’s another example of telcos looking to bring more and more value to their subs and it means that streamers have new competitors in the lands of bundles!

Forget DeepSeek and others, grab Le Chat. iOS / Android