TV Brand-casting, SVOD, and OTT at Comcast and Disney

This 10,000-word chapter introduces my theory of transmedia marketing circuits in which franchise content is structured not only to enable viewers to start anywhere in a transmedia content circulation loop, but also to facilitate the circulation of messaging about the particular appeals of the interrelated content. As a means of focus, I contrast the content-as-promotion strategies connected to Black-ish (ABC 2014–present) and other sitcoms across the Disney-ABC Television Group with those connected to Parks and Recreation (NBC 2009-2015). This ensemble comedy proved to be of particular value to the on-demand library strategies of parent company Comcast, which needed content for Seeso, NBCUniversal’s short-lived SVOD platform, and then for Netflix, Comcast’s OTT partner. This comparison of Parks & Recreation and Black-ish highlights how each sitcom functions as part of the content-promotion circuits that organize the transmedia business model of each conglomerate. I also make connections between the two series and different forms of promotion for Marvel’s Black Panther and its Guardians of the Galaxy films, highlighting the key differences between the function of broadcast television in the tightly integrated Walt Disney Company and in the looser structure within Comcast NBC Universal. The aim here is to detail the role that broadcast television and its characters/actors can play in the circulation of promotion for film and television distributed (and often produced) by a single media conglomerate.