From an outsider's perspective, Jason Wise, director of the SOMM movies and founder of SOMM TV, has been able to find stories in the world of wine that interest a broad audience. To control more of the content pipeline and how the shows are distributed, Jason founded SOMM TV. Using "Somm" as more of a curator, SOMM TV has wine at its core and covers food, travel, and other alcohol, making it appealing to a broad (and younger) audience. Learn more about the business of wine films in this episode of XChateau!
Detailed Show Notes:
SOMM movie (2012) - Genesis of the movie
- Made when he was fresh out of film school (where he didn't focus on documentaries)
- Met Brian McClintic, who asked him to watch their tasting practice
- Jason found the practice similar to a sporting event
- Met Ian Cauble and found his determination to become a Master Sommelier
The success of the film
- The obsessive personalities made the film
- Builds to an actual event (the MS exam)
- The wine industry was ready for something like the movie
- Not a "wine film," a different way of looking at wine
- Introduced a new group of people who can tell you what to drink (vs magazines)
- Documentaries became popular with Netflix
- Not made by wine people, the outsider perspective made it enjoyable for outsiders
Media business model
- Movies usually have a distributor
- Theaters are a big marketing arena for wine
- iTunes - make a % of revenue
- Netflix - pays the distributor a fixed fee; if put on the 1st page, it can reach millions of people. It often pays based on what it costs to make. They can own rights outright or rent the film
- Amazon - get paid 6+ months after it's up, get a tiny cut of incremental revenue
- YouTube - don't make any money on
- Created SommTV to control more steps in the business model - more control of content pipeline, partnerships, and a place to premiere new films (e.g., SOMM 4)
- Before Covid - events were a big part of the business
Media platforms
- Hulu - Jason's favorite, takes the biggest swings in content
- Stars - has the best movies
- Netflix - very careful; content is very similar to each other; often licenses something then makes their version if it works (e.g., Uncorked is a similar series to Somm)
Cost of making films
- Big range - SOMM 2 ~$100k vs ~$850k for another wine film made by someone else
- Documentaries - can be millions, when there's real music, at least $500k
- Do not pay people to be in the film
SommTV business model
- Employees on salary, which is unusual in film
- 90% original content
- It started with originals and, now, trying to license other content
- Focused on wine, food, and alcohol; food is going to be a big part
- It started the streaming service because it's an underserved audience, and wanted to super-serve them
- Content pipeline - they would ideally love to have new content every day
- Hundreds of thousands of subscribers (as of Jan 2022) - believes the potential audience is in the millions
- "Somm" is defined by Jason as someone who curates - wine at the center, but food, travel, etc…surrounding it
- Pricing - $6/month, $50/year
- Lower cost doesn't necessarily mean more subscribers
- Technology - a mix of own-developed and 3rd party apps; the goal is to bring the technology in-house
SommTV subscribers
- Younger, usually 24-37 years old (~70%), middle class
- Screenings/events - more varied audience
- 52% male, 48% female - women growing fast
- Key markets - US largest by far, UK, Brazil, Nordic countries (not allowed in Iran or China)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
