Canadians love their reality TV.
Among the 45 countries where Hayu delivers NBCUniversal鈥檚 American reality TV content to international markets, Canada鈥檚 subscriber volume is second only to the United Kingdom.
鈥淥ne of the core metrics is average viewing hours per month, and for our 45-territory footprint, that averages between 20 and 22 hours per person per month,鈥 says Hendrik McDermott, the managing director of the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service. 鈥淚n the Canadian market that averages around 27 to 28 hours per user per month, which is about an hour a day, and 50 per cent of our Canadian subscribers are coming onto our platform every single day.鈥
The Toronto-born, London, England-based head of the American media giant鈥檚 international reality streaming platform had originally only crossed the ocean to pursue an MBA at Oxford, following an economics degree at Queen’s University and a brief stint at Rogers Publishing.
During the two-year business school education, which began in 2004, however, the Canadian dollar dropped significantly against the British pound, prompting McDermott to extend his stay to pay down his new student debt in its home currency. In 2006, McDermott accepted a job at NBCUniversal in London, where he’s remained.
鈥淚 thought maybe I鈥檇 get a job in London for a few years to sort that out, and those few years turned into almost 20 years at the same organization,鈥 he says.
After six years in corporate development and strategy for the American brand鈥檚 international markets, McDermott took over as managing director of British children鈥檚 network KidsCo TV, before being named senior vice-president of global distribution for NBCUniversal.
Then in 2014, as the American media giant sought to enter the global streaming market, it launched a new brand dedicated to distributing the nearly 2,000 hours of unscripted content produced annually by its E!, Oxygen and Bravo networks. McDermott has led Hayu, which arrived in Canada in 2018, ever since.
When it launched in 2015, Hayu was one of the only genre-specific streaming services, and its marquee brands clearly dominated the reality segment, but over the past decade competition has grown. In response, Hayu has delved into original content and is experimenting with in-person events that bring fans face-to-face with their favourite reality stars.
McDermott spoke to the Star from his office in London about the early days of the streaming wars, the inevitability of bundled services, Hayu鈥檚 move into original content, the possibility of live events in Toronto, and why Canadians just can鈥檛 get enough reality TV.
Why did NBCUniversal launch Hayu in 2015 and why did they choose you to lead it?
In 2015 we as an organization looked to launch a video-streaming platform with a focus on unscripted content, and I spent quite a few years working on our TV channel distribution, so I knew a lot about how television operated in the markets where we wanted to launch.
At the time it seemed clear that the television industry was about to go through a change, and we were ahead of the curve launching a platform, which is what attracted me to this opportunity.
Why start with unscripted content?
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading unscripted production companies, producing about 2,000 hours of unscripted content per year, so we have quite a large catalogue, and it uniquely positioned us to be credible at launch.
Why the name “Hayu?”
We wanted to have a new brand that we could take globally, so we looked for something that we could trademark around the world, something that would be memorable and something that would work in Indonesia and the United Kingdom. We went through thousands of four-, five- and six-character names and we settled on Hayu. There’s nothing more to it than that.
Is Hayu its own streaming platform or an add-on service?
We do have a standalone app, but we are a single-genre service focused entirely on reality TV, which means that we’re not competing with general entertainment services. Over time we’ve seen the emergence of quite a few studio peers and others launching large, general entertainment services. That is a very competitive space.
Being a 鈥渃omplementary service鈥 鈥 as we like to call it 鈥 is important because it allows us to price ourselves accordingly. We鈥檙e not trying to be your next Netflix subscription; just the opposite. We think we can sit alongside those general entertainment services at a lower price point.
Are streaming bundles inevitable?
It’s 100 per cent a natural next step, and it’s already happening. We鈥檙e already doing bundles on Amazon Prime Video, and in Canada we have a bundle with StackTV. I think the next phase is what I’ll call 鈥渞etail bundles,鈥 which will be independent platforms coming together so that you can buy two different services for one combined price. We just added Hayu to Telus鈥檚 Stream+ service alongside Netflix, Disney+ and others, and I think most platforms are now moving more toward bundling.
How else can Canadians access Hayu?
Canada is probably our most advanced market from a technical perspective; we have almost perfect distribution across the market, and that necessitated us to build quite a few different bespoke apps and integrations. Some Canadians are cord cutters, some are cable subscribers, and we’ve got to make sure that our platform is available everywhere. Not only did we create partnerships with all the app stores, but we also have partnerships with all the cable and TV providers in Canada.
Are you running out of potential new customers?
There absolutely is further growth to come in the Canadian market. The reality genre is very popular and the number of reality fans in Canada is growing every year. We have had very strong performance, but we’re nowhere near the ceiling of subscription we think we can obtain.
Why do Canadians love reality TV?
It is very relatable, because it’s unscripted. These are real people with real things happening in their lives. I think a lot of people can relate to that. A lot of the content is also very repeatable, so you can watch over and over. We never take anything down from our platform 鈥 you can go back to season one, episode one of every show 鈥 so if season 14 of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” is coming out, you might want to go back and catch up on season 12 or 13.
And in Canada specifically, we have a lot of shows that are already huge international franchises 鈥 like the “Real Housewives,” “Below Deck” and “Southern Charm” 鈥 and these shows cross the border well from a cultural perspective. And because we get that content immediately after it airs in the U.S., and provide those catalogues on demand, we can give the customer everything from a reality-TV perspective.
Are you threatened by the other streaming giants entering the genre?
I think it’s great that there’s more unscripted content coming out, because it proves what we’ve known for a decade. The competition is flattering, and I think it will grow the market for everyone. Yes, we are seeing numerous other platforms produce content like this, but nowhere is there the depth and breadth that we have.
Why the recent pivot into original content?
When you launch a new platform, you need to establish your brand and a subscriber base before putting out something exclusively, but it鈥檚 always at the back of your mind.
We think we’ve achieved that in the U.K. market, where our brand awareness is north of 55 per cent and we have quite a strong subscriber base. NBCUniversal owns “Real Housewives,” and we’re able to develop the “Real Housewives of London,” which we just announced at our recent Fan Fest in London.
We started there because it鈥檚 our largest market, and it鈥檚 our first foray into the space, but original content is always the end goal for streaming services, because it helps add new subscribers and keep existing ones. It’s something that we’re looking at in different places to see if original content is the next phase.
Does that mean Canada-based shows could follow?
We’ve just announced this British version, but if it鈥檚 a success, this is something that will roll out over numerous years, and there’s absolutely no reason why Canada couldn’t be in that mix.
Could a version of Fan Fest also make its way to Canada?
We just hosted our first ever Fan Fest, where we brought a lot of talent from the shows over to the United Kingdom, and tickets sold out. That was a big first for us, and we’re starting to move that way in the Canadian market as well.
We have brought a lot of talent over 鈥 we’ve had Tom Schwartz from “Vanderpump Rules” and Austen and Craig from “Southern Charm” in Canada recently 鈥 so it’s something we’re looking at. We do bring a lot of talent to the Canadian market, but as we evaluate how this original Fan Fest performed, we’ll start to look at where else we can bring our fan engagement events.
What should Canadians expect to see on the platform in 2025?
Just an increased amount of content to watch. We’re looking forward to our key franchises coming into our platform exactly at the same time as in the U.S., there are new shows being produced by Bravo and E! that we’ll be bringing into the market, and a lot of our shows returning in 2025. We鈥檒l have “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” we’ve got “The Valley,” a new show that came in this year. We’re looking forward to bringing lots of content into the market in 2025.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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