Linette Zaulich on ZDF Studios’ B2C Business

On the heels of her appointment to lead ZDF Studios’ B2C department, Linette Zaulich weighed in on AVOD licensing opportunities, YouTube engagement and FAST channel rollouts as the CTV Festival continued today.

Zaulich’s keynote conversation with World Screen’s Mansha Daswani about how ZDF Studios is approaching the FAST space and building its YouTube business can be viewed here.

ZDF Studios started playing in the B2C space several years ago with YouTube channels and licensing content to digital services. “We’re partnering with those platforms that have a direct relationship to the consumer,” Zaulich noted. “Through data and the direct feedback we get from the consumers, we can influence our success. It’s a whole different business. You actually have to do what the consumer wants, not the broadcaster. This is why we decided to put more focus on that side of the business.”

The company has been particularly successful in licensing non-scripted content to AVOD services, Zaulich explained. Rev-shares still dominate the space, she said, and the earnings from those deals are no longer being dismissed.

“We were a launch partner with Pluto TV in Germany in 2019. We agreed on a rev-share deal, and my finance department [wondered,] ‘What are you doing? It’s 500 hours of documentaries. It’s not making much per asset.’ I said, ‘Wait for it.’ It did change. No one’s asking those questions anymore. This is the same story with most of the AVOD platforms. You start slow, and as they gain reach and become more and more successful, we grow with them.”

Zaulich then weighed in on ZDF Studios’ own journey with FAST channels since it first aligned with Pluto TV. “The FAST channel universe is fulfilling an additional need of the consumer. If they don’t find anything to watch, they’ll find the single IP they know and they like. And no matter the episode that’s actually running, they’ll watch. This is a whole new way of distributing the content. We have so many long-running and successful series that we can put in a FAST channel and reach more people with them.”

ZDF Studios announced a deal with Samsung TV Plus in 2023 to launch up to 20 channels in Europe, with that process ongoing. “When it comes to Germany, our brands are known and will be successful because of ZDF. When it comes to European activities, ZDF might be known, but it is not as popular as in German-speaking countries, so we need to rely on the partnership we have [with Samsung TV Plus] so that it’s a win-win for everyone. Also, with other partners, we find ways to give them the best of our content. FAST is the symptom of the devices taking over the content. Which means you need to understand where the user is coming into the devices and offer what they want to watch.”

Zaulich then addressed the issue of analytics and how data is being mined to better inform programming, marketing and distribution divisions.

“When it comes to YouTube, we have super interesting data. The metrics are known. When it comes to FAST, AVOD or SVOD, the metrics differ from platform to platform. No one actually knows what a monthly active user is. There’s no definition. What is a view? The industry needs to align and strategize together to make the most of this huge universe. When it comes to the data we receive, we use it to question known KPIs. For example, how do you measure success for a YouTube channel? Usually, it’s a subscriber number. But if you look into the data, you might see a big surprise when it comes to who’s actually watching the content. How many views are you receiving through the actual subscribers and through non-subscribers? Our most extreme case in that field is our documentary channel Get Factual. We found that within the past year, only 6 percent of our views came from subscribers. The rest are people coming from content recommended through the start page, through the videos. Of course, it’s necessary to have a certain number of subscribers, but you need to look into the data to understand where the revenues are actually coming from. This is the kind of work I want to do around every platform: see what the KPIs are for every platform, go there and make our channels more successful with this kind of data.”

Data has also proven to Zaulich that cannibalization when you’re sharing your content on YouTube should not be a concern. “We launched an SVOD channel for Terra X, which is the most popular documentary slot in Germany. In 2017, we created an Amazon SVOD channel. The content is curated for you. At the same time, the ZDF catch-up service is available on every device in Germany, so with one click on your remote, you can easily switch to the streaming service and watch the content that is available there. Terra X happens to be available for ten years for free. So, all of the shows we curated on Amazon as an add-on subscription channel are available for free with just one click on your remote. Still, it’s a very successful channel. People are paying monthly in order to watch it, even though they could easily watch it for free. There’s no cannibalization happening. If you like a platform, you like the environment you’re in, you’re ready, you’re eager to pay for more, for good quality content, even though it could be somewhere else. I don’t believe in cannibalization. Of course, working for the public broadcaster, I need to prove that my beliefs are not hurting any broadcast strategy, especially when it comes to ZDF’s content strategy. We’re closely aligning our strategies there in order to make the most out of the whole digital universe for both sides.”