Maybe It's Time to Think About the Content-Consuming Public

Maybe It's Time to Think About the Content-Consuming Public

Andy Marken November 3, 2023

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Ohhh you stopped wanting. Ahhh, not needing. - Gitano Sabatoni, Two Bits, Miramax, 1995

Aristotle was right back around 343 BC (give or take a few years) when he advanced the postulate that nature abhors a vacuum.

Seems like only yesterday we were complaining about our cable TV bundle that we were paying $150 /- just knowing we were being taken to the cleaners because we only watched three - five (?) channels.

Everything else? Total waste IMO!

So, we went through the long, arduous task of ending our contract with them and kept our home fiber and wireless connections to the world.

Obviously, we weren't alone. Back a few quarters ago, 2.2M folks cut their TV cord, 2.9 percent of all subscribers.

Source Wikimedia

Death Kneel - It's pretty common knowledge that pay TV is past its peak and on a slow, agonizing subscription decline. Even as subscribers jump ship, the networks stay on board as long as possible with low-cost unscripted shows and as many ads as the video pipeline will hold.

They're like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

O.K., it didn't all happen at once. Liechtman reported that at the end of the first quarter of this year, 73.7M US households still subscribed to some form of pay TV.

Incidentally, there are a lot of new streaming services that would love to have that many subscribers.

All the growth will come from streaming video

Source - Omdia

Subscription Growth - During the early days of streaming - especially during the pandemic - adding subscriptions was delightfully easy for streamers/studios. But it's impossible to ever achieve 100 percent penetration and growth, so streamers are shifting from growth above everything else to profit margins.

Leading OTT services/subscribers:

Netflix 231 million

Amazon Prime Video 200 million

Disney 138 million

Tencent Video 124 million

iQIYI: 106 million

Max 86.8 million

Hulu 43 million

Paramount 32.8 million

Of course, those aren't all of the services, and the subscriber numbers change day by day, hour by hour.

But Wall Street expert's siren call of the billions of dollars, euros, yuan, etc., that can be made convinced more than 200 services around the globe that steaming was like the California gold rush of the 1800s subscribers were just sitting around waiting for you to sign them up for your anytime, anyplace, any screen service.

And, according to Statista, the streaming market has done well in recent years and should show modest growth in the years ahead:

2018 - streaming market value was $42.4B

2019 - market was valued at $50.5B

2020 - market rose to $59.1B

2021 - valued at $72.2B

2022 - streaming value was 84.3B

2023 - it's projected to reach $90.8B

2024 - market is forecast to reach $98.8B

2025 - market will top $106.8B

2026 - global market is estimated to be worth $115B

Source - Teamboat Springs

Streaming Ease - After finally freeing yourself from your pay TV bundle and have begun streaming content that is economic (per service), life almost feels like a relaxing tubing adventure on a calm stream.

Your entertainment life has almost turned into a summer break floating down your stream watching your new, interesting content when you want. It's only costing you $6 $15 for your service plus your $50 /- home fiber connection.

Of course, you need that anyway to stay in touch with the office, partners, friends, whatever; so it's a standard part of your household budget not your entertainment budget.

You're really happy with your core video services Netflix, Prime; but depending on your viewing tastes/habits, you've burned through all of the series and/or new movies they offer (binged) or your friend, neighbor or social media connection tells you about the new stuff on one of the other services- Disney , Max, Paramount , BritBox, Canal , etc. and you have to add their service to your entertainment lists

No problem, it's only $10 here, $10 there and as WBD's David Zaslav said his organization's content is more valuable than everyone else's, so you sign up for his $15 package.

Source Nielsen

Easy Addition - The freedom of picking and choosing which streaming service that you decided to use was almost irresistible to consumers especially when adding another only cost you $10 /- a month. As the number rose, so did the home entertainment budget as well as the difficulty in finding a specific show/movie you wanted.

Suddenly, you're looking at a major monthly entertainment bill that almost costs as much as the pay TV bundle you left.

That sucks!

Now you have 5-7 entertainment silos that do their darndest to figure out and recommend shows/movies you'd like to watch on their service but don't have a clue about what might interest you in someone else's tower.

Source - HRN

Sifting - Today, you have all the ingredients you need to enjoy entertainment at home with the show/movie you want and when you want to watch it. The only thing you have to do is sift through 4-6 services and 10s, 100s of shows/movies. Suddenly things got difficult and frustrating.

So, you spend 8-10 minutes popping into and out of each of the services, sifting through all of their really special content, trying to find the one project that will really satisfy you right now.

Then settling!

Of course, there's an answer and the studios know what it is.

They'll go back to the bundle.

Source Statista

New, Unique - Streaming video services struggle to differentiate themselves by touting the depth of shows/movies they offer for a very low cost as well as their steady stream of new/unique ontent. But that doesn't necessarily mean their content is interesting to you.

You know, the Disney bundle -

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