As consumption and consumer attention fragments across platforms, it is increasingly important that subscription video on-demand (SVOD) services maximise reach by offering related on-demand content in other formats, which can include podcasts. Many major platforms already produce companion podcasts as additional content for their most popular TV shows and promote them in-platform. Max is among those creating a foundation for hosting bonus content in-house to close the audience gap that loses audience engagement to other platforms.
For some Max original shows, for instance their hit drama Succession, the screen displays a static image ad for the companion podcast before an episode begins. This ensures that the audience is aware of the podcast and can download the episode on their chosen streaming service. These ads could be upgraded to include QR codes, allowing users to save the episodes more easily.
However, this process still leads the user off the Max platform, creating the audience gap. This explains how audiences must use third-party platforms to find the bonus content from video services because they do not host them in-platform. To close this gap, the next step would be hosting Max podcasts in-platform. While 31% of podcast listeners listen to podcasts on a TV, 59% listen to podcasts on smartphones, and Max can utilise its platforms on both devices to host their own. Moreover, Max is already dedicating production time to create bonus video content that starts as soon as episodes end. These cast and crew interviews would typically be found on other platforms, like YouTube, but instead, Max brings it directly to their users to maintain attention. This same method could be applied to video podcasts. However, if Max were to make all podcast content exclusive to their own platform, it would also limit the reach of their shows to current subscribers. On the other hand, Max can experiment with exclusivity, perhaps making podcast episodes exclusive for the first week of release only. This would allow Max to still utilise streaming platforms as promotion, utilising the best of both exclusive and non-exclusive strategies.