Sometimes, a new service hits the scene at the perfect time to fill a major need. Take the rise of food delivery services during COVID lockdowns, for instance. As much maligned as it is now, the rise of Cable TV or even specific channels like ESPN and MTV were cultural touchstones that defined whole genres of entertainment. It meant people could see channels much more clearly and get so much more TV content than ever before.
Streaming services have had some major impacts as well. When Netflix started streaming, it was sort of in addition to an already existing service but it came to define an industry. Later when Disney+ hit there was a massive reaction unlike any other service that has launched before or since. The upcoming Chic-fil-Play will not be the next Disney+.
Chic-fil-A is one of my favorite fast-food restaurants hands down. My wife swears by the lemonade. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like their chicken and their cows are iconic in the ad industry. But taking this leap to TV streaming is a jump too far over the moon. A food company has absolutely no business getting into the TV industry outside of sponsoring a show. Even with the potential cross-marketing opportunities it will have via customers waiting in drive-through lines for a half hour instead of walking into the store and getting their food in 3 minutes.
Its pre-launch marketing has been very vague hinting that there is not much to expect with the service. Promises of a 10-part game show, a cartoon about their cows, and a mission to “Bring Families Together” is not exactly like marketing every single original series HBO ever made along with movies, live sports etc or almost the entire Disney, Marvel, and Lucas Film library. Even the much smaller Discovery+ has a hook of being the home of almost every single reality hit from home and cooking shows to true crime and health.
What in the heck does Chick-fil-A think it’s going to offer in order to be a destination in an app landscape with thousands and thousands of apps much less 20 major services? There are a number of services that already market themselves as family-oriented. And usually, they end up as homes to classic westerns, TV shows from the 1950’s and 60s and sweet family shows like Little House on The Prarie, Touched By An Angel, and similar fare. And for those of you who like that sort of thing, that’s the kind of thing you would probably like. In fact it’s the nice thing about streaming. It is the ultimate niche TV platform. There are also a lot of free services available for family/Americana/Christian-based TV. So yes there is a market for it. But why oh why does the home of wonderful waffle fries think it needs to invest in the space?
Chick-fil-A would be way better off producing some original content and selling it to an existing service. Netflix, Amazon Prime or one of the other big streamers that bid for new original content may be able to give them a nice price. But the days of building services from the ground up and then pulling in the same existing IP that others offer already do is not a recipe for success. Chic-fil-A should stick to the dippers and the nuggets they’re used to.
