Video streaming has become a very ordinary thing to do these days. Here in the Netherlands, this started with Netflix expanding to our country in 2013 and now they already have 3 million paying subscribers. In the first years of video streaming it was very easy: most people would decide whether they would want a subscription to a video streaming service and if yes they would choose Netflix. Now, in 2019 a lot of competitors have entered the market successfully and it isn’t that easy anymore.
With a lot of new competitors entering the market, there is a lot more content available and you can really specify which service you want to pay for. But we should be vigilant, as having multiple streaming services also adds up quickly in terms of costs. Most people also still want to watch normal television from their homes and combined this means a lot of costs for viewing just some of your favourite programs and series.
We can take the United States as an example of how things can get out of hand. A Deloitte survey from this year showed that half of the tv users are becoming frustrated from the “juggling” between multiple subscriptions. In the United States there are already over 300 streaming services to choose from. What we therefore might want to see again is a more centralized platform with content from multiple parties combined. This is probably what we will see again in the future as it won’t be possible for all streaming companies to make profits, there are just so many viewers and these won’t be equally divided.
So the question here is should we be happy with all these companies starting their own streaming service, or is the consumer really the loser in this story. Maybe in a few years, after this “wave” of new streaming companies we will see new partnerships and content will be more centralized. It all depends on our demands and which companies will rule the streaming market in the upcoming years. What do you think about the evolution of the streaming market and what will the future bring?
Sources:
https://marketingland.com/lively-year-live-video-go-2017-203289
https://www.netflix-nederland.nl/wat-is-netflix/
https://www.totaaltv.nl/nieuws/drie-miljoen-netflixabonnees-in-nederland/
The consumer will definitely lose out as more and more film studios and media companies decide to create their own streaming service. We kind of had a situation like that before, where it was kind of difficult to see a movie conveniently at an affordable price (pre Streaming). The alternative, that got popular, was plain simple privacy. Still today there are enough services to go watch basically any movie or TV show for free, albeit not with the look and feel of Netflix. I’m not saying that’s the thing to do then but most certainly privacy will increase again as the streaming industry becomes bigger in terms of competitors. If not maybe there even is a niche for a meta-service that manages your subscriptions very easily and cancels them for you after you started watching a series on another service’s site?
Hi Jeremy,
Very interesting post you’ve written here regarding the current and potential future state of the video streaming market in the Netherlands. As you’ve stated, television watchers in the United States are increasingly frustrated by the juggling between multiple subscriptions, hereafter you envision a more centralized streaming market. Personally, I see this happening in a different way than you’re proposing.
First, I expect that current subscription models where you subscribe to all content will be further decentralized into subscriptions for specific genres. As you’ve stated, as the decentralization trend is on the rise, it’s increasingly expensive to retain access to all content previously available through one service. Subscriptions on specific genres could be offered for a lower price and would therefore be more competitive and lower the barriers for potential customers.
Hereafter I expect these specific subscriptions to genres to outgrow into the new base of subscriptions. Subscription possibilities could range from one or two genres to the most expensive option, which is the traditional and current “one price for all” subscription. Meta-subscriptions for one genre across multiple platforms could potentially be offered by external parties such a mobile phone carriers, this depends completely upon the willingness of streaming services to work together.