The user experiences of streaming services in recent years have become mundane, lacking discovery, and are not additive to the consumption of video content as an entertainment activity. This lack of engagement, aside from catalogue content, has brought companies, such as Teleparty, to the forefront of community-driven ad-ons to streaming giants Netflix, YouTube, Hulu+, and more.
Teleparty (formerly Netflix Party) was released at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a prime opportunity to offer a shared experience with friends, family, and partners held apart by national restrictions and health concerns. The Chrome browser extension allowed streaming service subscribers to watch TV shows and movies together online through synchronised video playback. It also added group chat functionality to Netflix shows, enabling viewers to discuss what they are watching as they watch. As a free service, anyone with an active streaming provider subscription can use it through their Chrome browser on desktop computers or laptops. Allowing consumers to watch together in a shared online space is currently a notable product omission from major streaming services (a notable exception being the targeted streaming SVOD sports service DAZNs watch party feature). This is particularly pertinent as consumers seek added value from their video subscriptions as discretionary budgets become constrained during the cost-of-living crisis.
The utility and community-driven USP created a new and enhanced use case for remote share viewing. Post-pandemic, we have seen the return of in real life (IRL) shared video activity, both within the home and in the movie theatre. However, the discovery aspect of the newly improved and broadened streaming video app extension, while catering to the peer-review dynamics of video, still fails to build discovery beyond shared ad-hoc viewing experiences.
The next move for streaming services that are looking to add this to their value proposition will be to consider how to develop it beyond the basics of screen sharing, as we move into a period of demand for valuable personalised content discovery.