As we approach the end of this 2020, the study of the impact that this unusual year has had on the Broadcast & Media industry is more interesting than ever, not only to confirm some early ideas about what remote working, confinement and the lack of leisure alternatives could cause, but also to begin to understand the new paradigms of an industry whose circumstances have led in many cases to a quantitative, cultural and technological leap forward.
This acceleration and shift in trends seems to have come to stay, so it is worth taking a look, first of all, at the evolution of content consumption in three of the areas that have experienced the most changes: linear television, video on demand and live streaming.
Linear television or the restoration of confidence
As could be expected, during the second and third quarter of 2020 there was a considerable increase in news monitoring on linear TV. According to LogIQ data, news consumption increased up to 80%, to which it is also necessary to add a change in the usual focus of interest from global to local relevance, as audiences sought to learn how their closest environment was evolving.
On the other hand, this renewed interest at present partly compensated for the general stoppage of live sports, a temporary drought that caused great losses for all concerned, as more than 50 disciplines, not including multi-sport events such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (now 2021) were postponed or cancelled. It is estimated, for example, that this Olympic postponement puts at risk more than $5 billion in television rights, or that FIFA, the international soccer regulatory body, has lost more than $14 billion to date.
Of course, these events have affected media revenues. On the one hand, advertisers are investing less in television (32% less on average according to Devoncroft data) compared to digital media, and on the other hand, the pay TV model is clearly in decline. AT&T recently reported close to 1 million cable TV cancellations in the second quarter of 2020 in the US alone, and it is now one of the business branches to be put up for sale.
Although with the return of many sports activities this income has increased slightly in recent months, most major groups already have a video-on-demand alternative, an immersion in an increasingly competitive landscape.
The increasingly populated VoD scene
If 2019 was the starting point for Streaming Wars, 2020 is a further step in the creation, expansion and consolidation of SVoD platforms, i.e. those that offer content to the user by means of a subscription, without forgetting the increasingly common presence of mixed models and those purely based on ads or AVoD, such as Pluto TV.
Netflix remains the reigning VOD platform with nearly 200 million subscribers, and has experienced unprecedented growth during the pandemic, gaining some 26 million subscribers in the first half of the year, when in 2019 it added less than 28 million throughout the year, although it failed to reach its growth estimate for the first time in the third quarter of 2020, which could be the first indication of a certain market saturation.
In second place is Amazon Prime Video, which to a large extent due to the unparalleled bundle of its Prime service has already accumulated more than 150 million subscribers worldwide, in addition to being the second in investment for its own productions with an estimated expenditure of 7.6 billion dollars, an investment that seems to be paying off judging by the success and recognition of features such as Fleabag or The Marveous Mrs. Maisel.
But without a doubt, the most outstanding case is that of Disney +, which debuted in the USA and Canada a year ago and which, despite still being in the process of international expansion, has already more than 70 million users. Due to this success, Disney recently declared that it will reorganize its structure to reinforce its direct-to-consumer strategy, a trend that was already apparent with the exclusive on-demand release of Mulan last September.
On the opposite side of the coin is the Quibi initiative, a short content platform initially designed for mobile consumption. Despite having great talent for its productions and an initial investment of more than 1 billion dollars, it seems that the combination of a dubious proposal content initially produced only for mobile consumption and with the functionality of being able to flip the image at any time as a star element -, the pandemic and other factors led the vast majority of users (96%) not to keep the application after the trial period, which would lead to its closure after only six months of existence.
Faced with this avalanche of American OTT services from large corporations, several European national media have chosen to ally themselves to be competitive, offering services that add up to the combined catalogs of the members, such as Salto in France, Britbox in the United Kingdom, Joyn in Germany or LovesTv in Spain.
Source: OTT Streaming Wars: Raise or Fold Capgemini
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, the pandemic has accelerated processes that were already taking place in many households, where the paradigm is no longer the choice between linear TV or streaming, but which platforms to pay for and for how long.
Live streaming is the big winner
Finally, we cannot fail to analyze the phenomenon of live streaming. Because of the pandemic, live streaming platforms have managed to attract a much larger audience than before. As expected, with confinement many people are spending more time on social networks, and the consumption of live content on Facebook Live, Instagram Live, YouTube Gaming, and other platforms such as Twitch has increased considerably.
In fact, Twitch is undoubtedly the leading platform for live streaming, controlling 76% of this market according to Stream Elemen
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
As we approach the end of this 2020, the study of the impact that this unusual year has had on the Broadcast & Media industry is more interesting than ever, not only to confirm some early ideas about what remote working, confinement and the lack of leisure alternatives could cause, but also to begin to understand the new paradigms of an industry whose circumstances have led in many cases to a quantitative, cultural and technological leap forward. 
