In this week’s Five on Friday, The Guardian’s Guy Lodge shares his opinion that the discontinuation of FilmStruck spells doom for classic films, All Business discusses the subscribe & save business model, Investors.com tells us how the subscription model draws companies and customers closer together, Aria Systems raises $30 million in its latest funding rounding, and a new Pew Research report shows that social media has now outpaced print newspapers as a source for news among U.S. adults.

Does FilmStruck’s Fate Spell Doom for Classic Movies Online? 

Guy Lodge of The Guardian seems to think so. In a recent column, “Streaming: FilmStruck’s fate signals dark days for classic movies online,” Lodge shared the sad news that the two-year-old streaming subscription service FilmStruck shuttered its operations November 29. We covered the news in October when AT&T-owned WarnerMedia made the announcement that subscribers in the U.S. and abroad would no longer be able to stream a rotating selection of classic films. According to Lodge, U.S. viewers could access close to 2,000 classic films, while U.K. viewers only had access to about 200.

Lodge writes that this action could spell doom for other niche services that offer classic movies. He isn’t alone. Tens of thousands of classic movie fans have started an online petition to keep FilmStruck alive (#SaveFilmStruck). As of Wednesday, 91,866 film buffs have signed the petition with a goal of reaching 150,000.

Kevin Bahr, who started the petition, wrote:

“They have given cinephiles an indispensable resource for appreciating cinema, and provided so much joy to all those who thought that many of these movies would never see the light of a streaming platform,” said Bahr.

“FilmStruck was always advertised as a ‘niche market,’ but this goes beyond mere demographics and streaming numbers. This was not about creating the next Netflix or Hulu, this was about preserving the art of film from all walks of life through the years. As physical media slowly dies off, film lovers all over the world wonder what’s going to happen to their favorite classic films, their favorite rare art-house wonders, and their favorite international movies. FilmStruck was a welcome breath of fresh air from the homogeneity of all other streaming services and made us think for a brief while that perhaps these films would be able to have a home on streaming,” Bahr wrote.

Bahr’s concerns go far beyond not being able to see his favorite films. He believes corporations who don’t share their libraries with the public, who discontinue classic DVDs or let “films rot in a basement somewhere are doing a disservice to film fans as well as to history.

Lodge believes this is a trend that will continue, almost ensuring the demise of classic films to new generations of cinephiles.

“These are dark days for online access to classic or specialist cinema. The world of streaming, which once seemed to open limitless possibilities for archiving and access, appears instead to be narrowing, hampered by complex licensing restrictions and cynical commercial concerns,” Lodge said.

Will a petition save FilmStruck? Probably not, but Lodge and Bahr make good points. To date, niche streaming video on demand services have not been successful, and many like FilmStruck and SeeSo have shut down before building a sufficient audience. However, that creates an opportunity for a like-minded company to fill a growing gap.

The Benefits of the “Subscribe and Save” Model

Businesses like Target, Amazon and Chewy have been using a “subscribe and save” business model where subscribers get a small discount in exchange for semi-regular purchases whether they are weekly, monthly, quarterly or some other frequency. In a recent column, AllBusiness.com explained the benefits of a subscribe and save model:

• Multiple purchases: Customers can choose to make a one-time purchase or they can make a “soft commitment” to buy more frequently to get a discount. While this won’t retain every customer, the likelihood that someone pleased with a product, or group of products, is more likely. For example, I made a subscribe and save purchase on Chewy.com recently. In exchange for a 5 percent discount, I signed up for bimonthly recurring purchases. I can change the frequency or cancel any shipment at any time.
• Reliable revenue: With a subscribe and save model, subscription companies have a little more reliability in terms of revenue. As AllBusiness.com points out, each time a customer makes a purchase, they have to make a decision. With subscribe and save, that decision is made already, so it is easy to just let the subscription ride.
• Loyalty and convenience: With such programs, customers develop a dependence and appreciation for a product’s value – and a brand’s value. They rely on the regular shipments of razors, toiletries, dog food, prescriptions, etc. By subscribing and saving, this is one item people can cross off their “to do” list.

For more information on the subscribe and save model, read “Can a ‘subscribe and save’ model increase your small business revenue?” by Larry Alton for AllBusiness.com.

Bringing Companies and Customers Closer through Subscriptions 

The subscription economy has brought companies and customers together, whether you are talking about The New York Times reaching news consumers or Stitch Fix reaching women who don’t have time to shop for the latest fashions. Subscriptions offer subscribers predictable products and services for which they are willing to part with some of their monthly income. They offer subscription companies recurring revenue and customers who are more than just one-time shoppers.

Patrick Seitz writes about this concept in “Subscription Services Draw Companies Closer to Customers” for Investor’s Business Daily.

“Not satisfied with one-night stands, companies want long-term relationships with their customers – and they’re getting them, courtesy of subscription services,” Seitz writes.

Some say the trend started with Netflix, but it really started with the very earliest of subscriptions – newspapers and magazines and services like the once-popular “book of the month club.” Through subscriptions, customers can get what they need at a bite-size price.

Take Netflix, for example. The appeal of a service like Netflix for cord cutters is that they are already paying for internet service. They can watch a vast variety of shows on Netflix for $9.99 or more a month without a costly cable subscription. The customer is in control. In exchange, Netflix gets a captive audience. Sure, customers are free to leave at any time, but if Netflix consistently delivers a quality product that is of value to the customer, their customers are sticking around – eventually covering the cost of acquisition and creating a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship.

Netflix may be the most visible of example of how subscriptions close the gap between companies and customers, but there are thousands of examples including everything from software-as-a-service and subscription boxes to digital music subscriptions and car subscriptions.

Read Seitz’s in-depth analysis of the subscription economy at Investors.com.

Aria Systems Raises $30M in Funding to Accelerate Growth

On Tuesday, Aria Systems, an enterprise subscription and recurring billing software provider, announced that it had raised $30 million in its latest funding round. The new funding came from existing investors as well as Runway Capital. Aria will use the additional investment to grow, including meeting increased demand for its services and supporting major enterprise customers.

The new capital will also help the company move into a cash-flow positive position with strong growth projected in 2019. Aria anticipates ending 2018 with 60 percent growth from new customers and existing customers who are expanding their usage of Aria. Aria calculated its net retention rate for the year at 110 percent.

“This latest round of investment is further validation of Aria’s success and growth prospects as we continue to partner with major global enterprises seeking a modern billing and subscription management solution,” said Tom Dibble, President and CEO of Aria Systems, in a December 11 news release.

“Our platform has repeatedly proven to be the only true enterprise-grade cloud offering that supports the size and complexity of some of the world’s largest and most innovative companies. As a result, we’re experiencing a remarkable increase in adoption of our platform from enterprises embracing recurring revenue business models as the new operational standard,” Dibble added.

Aria offers cloud-based, enterprise-level subscription billing services that integrate with legacy and on-site systems as well as other cloud-based systems to help companies monetize their subscription products and services.

“Enterprise companies seeking to maximize recurring revenue from a new or existing service or product can gain a very real competitive edge with Aria’s solution,” said David Spreng, CEO of Runway Capital, in the news release. “The company continues to grow globally and across a variety of industry sectors, all while building a positive cash flow operation. With a strong management team and a superior solution in an addressable market projected to reach $20 billion, we are incredibly bullish on Aria’s prospects for continued success.”

According to Crunchbase, this privately-held, 15-year-old company has had six funding rounds through September 2017, totaling $150.3 million. This funding round would bring the total raises to $180.3 million. Some of its current customers include Adobe, Allstate, Comcast, Dell, HootSuite, Red Hat and Roku.

Learn more about Aria Systems’ subscription billing solutions at AriaSystems.com.

Pew Research: Social Media is More Popular than Newspapers as a News Source; TV remains top source

A new report from Pew Research confirms what many of us already suspected – social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter – are growing in popularity as a news source. Twenty percent of U.S. adults reports they often get their news from social media, while only 16 percent get their news from print newspapers. Here’s the full breakdown for news sources in 2018, according to Pew:

Here are some additional highlights from that report:

• Local TV is the most popular source of news at 37 percent, followed by cable TV news at 30 percent, and national evening network news shows at 25 percent.
• Americans age 65 and older are five times more likely than 18-to 29-year-olds to get their news from TV.
• Only 16 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds and 36 percent of those 30 to 49 get their news from television.
• Those 18 to 29 are four times more likely to get their news on social media compared to those 65 and older.
• Print newspapers as a news source are more popular with those 65 and older with 39 percent reporting that’s where they get most of their news.
• Online news sites are most popular with adults ages 30 to 49.

Read more results from Pew Research Center’s December 10 report by Elisa Shearer.