Stories, Streaming & Experiments
Samuel · EPL · Sh*t · Vodka · Excess ·
Many TV channels and streamers want a strong multi-platform strategy for their original content. Few are able to commit to one that goes beyond clips and versions for social media. I enjoyed today’s story about a young French artist and how everything came together to achieve both social virality and streaming success.
The Colour Bar has plenty else lined up too, because it’s like a friend in the industry who reads widely- so you don’t have to.
Samuel’s Story: a 10 year old, sketches, and virality.
Not Premflix!: Thoughts on EPL’s foray into streaming
▶️ Curated/Cuts: Volcanic vodka & an excessive car
Oh Sh*t: Enshittification, personified.
➕ The Joker as your CD · Netflix’s boxing affair · Sarandos on walking away from WarnerBros.
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1. Samuel’s Story
Samuel is an animated series about a 10 year old boy and his monologues about growing up. It spans 21 episodes, about 4min each.
It looks charming, as I watch the Netflix trailer. But the interesting bit is how it got here. This is not a Netflix original.
Back in 2020, not long after graduating from animation school in France, and while working at a studio, Émilie Tronche started uploading sketches and shorts to Instagram and Facebook. These were personal experiments in storytelling, on the side.
The first came with the simple note, “I present to you a short film I made over a week and a few days, it’s called ‘Samuel’.”
Three more followed. Made in the matter of days, they bore a creative approach looking for something “as real as possible, as true as possible.”
A studio producer spotted these, reached out. Shall we develop a series?
“I thought it was always going to be something that I was doing on the side. I thought producers couldn’t be interested in it because it was too simple.”
‘Samuel’ was officially presented and picked up at the Cartoon Forum in September 2021. French, Spanish and Catalan streamers came on board for the co-production soon after.
A deliberate two-platform strategy was devised. The 21 ‘main’ episodes, in 16:9, were for streaming/TV. Accompanying them were 20 one-minute clips- specifically created for Tiktok.
These were companions, not cutdowns. And social media loved them.
Millions of views later, Tronche had a bona fide mainstream hit in 2024, both on streaming platforms and social. By all accounts, Samuel’s coming of age had touched young and not so young, alike.
But that wasn’t all. A book followed in 2025, Le Journal de Samuel. A second season was commissioned.
Then, Netflix picked it up for the US + select territories. It launched a few weeks ago.
What’s not to like- this here is a strong story about a young, expressive creative, and a sharp content strategy. Inspiring for indie animators.
Originality, a genuine story, effort, luck and smarts.
“Samuel was born from my own memories of childhood and adolescence in France, from something very intimate and personal.”
One thing.
Some of the commentary around it reframes the story primarily through a social media prism. Making this a ‘creator economy first’ narrative. From what I have read, this series did not happen through a purely social-first funnel. Tiktok virality did not trigger the production deal. The production strategy intentionally created Samuel for the TV screen and for Tikotk, from the outset.
Netflix? It had the easier decision- there was both social and streaming success to encourage its acquisition.
I’m all here for a great indie creative story, which this surely is. Less keen to have the narrative usurped.
Kudos to the first producer who spotted it- Damien Megherbi of Les Valseurs; the streamers/broadcasters- Arte, RTVE and TV3 CAT3- many broadcasters/legacy media want to do multi-platform approaches, but not all succeed, it is a hard one to crack.
But most of all kudos to Samuel’s creator- Émilie Tronche.
The only problem? It’s not available in my region. Bah! Come on Netflix- few cents top-up for worldwide rights?
“The first thing that I wanted to do was something for me and also for my family.
I wanted my parents and my sisters to like it.”
Did you come across the little brouhaha around the Wuthering Heights movie and Margot Robbie wearing Liz Taylor’s Mughal diamond to the premiere?
I write an eclectic and curious newsletter called Coffee & Conversations- over there I dove into a story of four women, four centuries, one trinket. Have a read.
2. Not Premflix!
Premier League Plus. First off, can we all agree that the Premier League have done everyone a huge favour by not naming their new upcoming streaming service Premflix, a term used liberally over the months to refer to its bubbling streaming efforts.
Yes?
Ok, great. Lets move on.
“At a basic level, it just makes sense.”
For years now, many of us have had the conversation about how sports bodies can go direct to fans. These chats start animatedly, drifting into rights cycles, ARPU, bundles, churn… and end with someone saying, “this makes so much sense for them,” and others sagely nodding over their mugs of various liquids.
Then someone else says, “BUT-!”
Now, it’s actually happening. The Premier League is launching a DTC service in Singapore. ‘Premier League Plus’ has its first market. A test market, we are told.
The logic has always seemed intuitive, straightforward. For the sport. For fans. Especially in markets where bundles have felt progressively heavier. Owning the relationship “just makes sense”.
But the counterpoint has always been ready too.
Broadcasters have written big, guaranteed cheques. Rights growth might be plateauing in some markets, (in fact, overall broadcast revenue was reportedly up 27% in the latest cycle)- but the revenue is predictable.
DTC brings volatility. Lower revenue at the start. Puts plenty of onus back to the league.
Fan expectation will likely be disproportionately high relative to the commercials. They’ll expect it to cost less- otherwise, what’s the point? And they’ll want flexibility- sachet pricing, team passes, game-by-game options. Not another full-season, upfront commitment.
Plus, any disappointment will be targeted to the league, not some evil telco or old TV channel.
As the EPL CEO rightly notes, they are “going to have to deal with promotion, pricing, churn, distribution, all of those things, we’re looking to build a business.”
So it’s easy to say “ah, inevitable.” Much harder to execute without some significant ripples in the ecosystem. Even with this ‘test’ mode, many firmly believe this will “cause shockwaves throughout the game as the world’s biggest domestic football league moves to directly control its revenues without the need for a broadcast partner.”
This is also being done in partnership with the current rights holder in Singapore, local telco/broadcaster StarHub. The intricacies around that deal are, erm, an interesting parallel track to consider.
Either way, this is another reason for many of us on the sidelines to grab some popcorn later this year.
3. Curated/Cuts
· Absolut x Tabasco ·
An unlikely collab. Or maybe not?
I have seen some “ewww” reactions at Tabasco-flavoured vodka. But hello- Bloody Marys, anyone?
The spot itself is suitably off-kilter.
Filmed on the volcanic fields south of Reykjavík, Iceland:
- Lava
- Volcano
- Hazmat suits
- Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’
- The inevitable yet welcome Absolut bottle made of lava flow.
So what do you reckon- Happy Hour or stay sober?
· Brand Filip Kiisk · Agency Freddy Taylor · Hermeti Balarin ·
· Directed by Leigh Powis · ProdCo ·
· Everything is Essential ·
Here are “3 excessive films for one excessive car.” From Uncommon Creative Studio, these are for the UK launch of Chinese hybrid car-maker Omoda’s latest.
To cover the Omoda 7’s 745-mile hybrid range in one tank + charge, serious interior noise reduction and in-car fragrance (erm, yeah), they chose to go all sensory. Everything has been done in camera. Everything real. I mean, there's water, snow, wind, flowers, and cats. Lots of cats.
252 claws.14 cat handlers. 279 takes. 3 flower varieties. 82,000 petals. 20,786 leaves. 12 fans, 6 canons.
Ok then! 3x clips here back to back.
Director Bleu Desert ·
Editor Antonin Brones · Soundtree Music / Neil Athale · Uncommon: Laura Hutchison · Duncan Clark · Omoda: Matthew Upton · Eric Knight · Yuwei Xue ·
Fun BTS here!
4. Oh, sh*t.
It is pretty incredible how Cory Doctorow’s made up term ‘enshittification’ has become such an integral part of discourse on tech products and services, and digital life in general.
This amusing short video goes ahead and gives it a persona.
Most of us will connect with some part of it; many will find much of it hitting home.
It comes from the Norwegian Consumer Council- accompanying a report they just launched. Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future attempts to show how this phenomenon affects both consumers and society at large, delving into enshittification and how to resist it.
A better digital world, the report says, “requires rebalancing the power between consumers, big tech companies and alternative service providers.”
Doctorow’s original essay that brought the word into the ether was about Amazon, back in 2022- you can read it here. He then wrote a book with the same title, and the world has embraced the word.
Back in 2024 he said, “The most gratifying part of the public attention for my dirty, silly little word is that it is attached to a deadly serious, complex, nuanced critique of platform capitalism, monopoly, the tech labor market, and regulatory capture.”
➕ Quick Hits
So the Warner-Paramount-Netflix saga seems to have come to a conclusion. For now. Lucas Shaw has an excellent rapid fire Q&A with Ted Sarandos, worth a quick read. He also wrote up the whole saga.
Netflix likes boxing. They just announced a ‘rematch’ of legends, but its a big one- Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao coming up in September. Ta-dum!
The Joker as your Creative Director, Batman is the client. This is The Dark Knight for Marketers. Amusing.
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