Streaming TV is about to get very expensive – here's why

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

If I had to rank these I still think Netflix is in the lead for the foreseeable future because of how many subs they already have and their content is still hitting.

I'd put Disney+ ahead of Prime but they gotta be careful how they handle Hulu. People aren't going to want to pay full price for both Hulu and then Disney+.

Disney+ has the catalog of classic animated joints, Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar. I don't know how their original content will be but families will buy in at least initially for the catalog.

Warner Media faces a similar issue. What they should be thinking is combining their movie studio, their sports programming and HBO and DC comics. Make some sort of bundle tier system. I'm not gonna pay $15 for HBO and then $7 for DC and then buy Bleacher Report and then another service for the movie catalog.

Their movie catalog is dope tho, besides the DC stuff they have over 50 years of movies from all genres and they also have LOTR and Harry Potter etc.. they have a lot of options.

I don't know if CBS and NBC can win in this game.. it's going to be tough for them.

Amazon I don't know, it's more about the free shipping for Prime than any of their content. I think they might take an L unless they invest billions.

I think APPLE+ has a chance because of the white women fan base they have.

 

[Contrefaire]

netflix/hulu benefitted because there was no competition

-------------

music listeners/movie watchers get to choose from multiple services, the one with the better product at the best price wins
competition is good.

Competition is good, oversaturation is not. Netflix/Hulu benefited because they gave the people what they wanted: more choice on one service for a lower price.

I don't really see how forcing people to choose just 3 or 4 out of 400 different streaming services will be better for the consumer. All the content you previously enjoyed in one place is now scattered across multiple platforms, each asking you to pay $10-$15+ per month for access. With this model, as a consumer you're inevitably going to miss out.

If anything we're going to see a resurgence in popularity for cable TV. After all these networks/streaming services splinter off and start demanding individual monthly fees, people will get tired and a savvy cable provider is going to come through and propose the radical idea of allowing viewers to consume all the TV they want for just a single monthly fee.

 

[richaveli83]

Right now I only have Netflix, Prime(strictly for 2 day shipping and below retail on a lot of stuff), and Hulu through Spotify. I got rid of Direct TV Now because I rarely watch TV as it is. I have a digital antenna for local channels. I'll be damned if I get something else. Fire stick was one of the best purchases I've made in years!

 

[Mr. McDowell]

Let's unpack this for a moment:

Netflix
Amazon
Disney+
Apple+
Hulu (Disney)
Warner Media
HBO Now (Warner)
Comcast/Universal [tbd]
CBS All-Access
Showtime
Starz/Lionsgate
Paramount/Viacom or merger w/ CBS (?)
MGM/Epix (?)
Sony Crackle - majority owner is now Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment

Somebody has to lose. I am not sure what Comcast's endgame is, if they want to be an ad-supported streaming service. They literally have zero premium programming. They only have reruns of old hits. Amazon is an easy company to stick around because they are ubiquitous and don't even need to succeed with their platform. So they can take large swings and fail and it still won't hurt them in the long run. No one other than Apple or Alphabet could do the same. And we know Alphabet has basically gotten out of the game with YouTube.

If the broadcast networks would just make better shows, they could actually do better, but at this stage, they appear to be hopeless.

 

[eastsideTT]

wow...great...so more recurring monthly fees, more DRM, more logins, more passwords, more security questions, more accounts linked to other accounts, more accounts linked to my credit card, more middlemen collecting, analyzing and selling info on what I like to watch and when

im at a critical mass with all of this shyt

im not paying for nothing else. if i really want to see it, ill find a way (torrent) i already have enough and could probably cut back 90% and still survive. im supposed to jump through all these hoops to rent some old Office episodes or watch a marvel movie? not worth it. ive had enough of all this shyt

 

[pete clemenza]

Because a large percentage of those subs weren't there for Netflix original content. That became a bonus, but their model was based on having access to almost everything. If most of those people, lets say 60%, are there to watch older, well-known/cult shows, what happens when those shows are elsewhere? Without the Mouse content, you know how many parents will drop it?And once their subs greatly reduce, all of those production studios will begin to shop their shows elsewhere.



"Make it a Blockbuster night" was once as iconic as that.

Yep but Netflix saw the future of streaming online while Blockbuster stuck to brick and mortar and blu rays only to try to jump to the online game when it was too late. Netflix been streaming online for a minute way before they became popular. People forget this.

 

[Rekkapryde]

meh I think these new streaming platforms are in for a rude awakening.
they're not gonna take off like they're hoping. Folks aren't buying all of these. I think majority of people will have Netflix, Disney, and Prime (mainly for the shipping not the TV) and that's it.

Church

 

[David_TheMan]

These upstarts will cop that L long before Netflix does.

Most likely they won't because the new companies are the content holders/creators and are backed by tv networks and cable companies, that can outspend Netflix.

 

[David_TheMan]

Competition is good, oversaturation is not. Netflix/Hulu benefited because they gave the people what they wanted: more choice on one service for a lower price.

I don't really see how forcing people to choose just 3 or 4 out of 400 different streaming services will be better for the consumer. All the content you previously enjoyed in one place is now scattered across multiple platforms, each asking you to pay $10-$15+ per month for access. With this model, as a consumer you're inevitably going to miss out.

If anything we're going to see a resurgence in popularity for cable TV. After all these networks/streaming services splinter off and start demanding individual monthly fees, people will get tired and a savvy cable provider is going to come through and propose the radical idea of allowing viewers to consume all the TV they want for just a single monthly fee.

There is no such thing as oversaturation for the consumer, that is strictly a producer issue because it lowers their potential revenue and profit.
For consumers it drives down prices and increases competition.

 

[David_TheMan]

I'm unclear on why people think Netflix is going to be the first service to fail. They already have 130 million subs worldwide. It will be a very long time before any other service is up there with those numbers.

SMH

Netflix is on the hook for $20 billion. Can it keep spending its way to success?

this was 2 years ago

Check out the D/E Ratio
Netflix Debt to Equity Ratio 2006-2019 | NFLX

Look at long term debt and remember thats just long term debt not short term.

Again Netflix growth won't last forever and content will either be frozen out or prices increased, its not looking good for them

 

[karim]

These companies are retarded. What they need to do is go the way of the music industry and produce their content and provide it to streaming services. Everybody trying to set up their own streaming services is just going to fukk it up for everybody and customers returning to the habbit of pirating content. The only reason I'm not downloading TV shows anymore is because it's cheap and more comfortable to stream. Once that is no longer the case, I'm back on openload or putlocker, frantically clicking away a million pop up windows

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

Maybe all if this is a good thing. Maybe just maybe people will start being pulled away from their tvs and phones. Get people back into society again.

 

[ill_will82]

I'm a just put like this and it's probably already been said in here... A lot of these companies are going to lose the streaming app wars b/c folks aren't going to pay $10-15 for a monthly subscription.

HBO Now is like $15 a month, Starz is another $8-9 and I only turn those on during the summer for Power, Ballers, & The Deuce. Once those shows stop running by mid-fall I cancel service. The thing that I like about the stream era is that I'm not tied down to a yearly contract.

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

Because a large percentage of those subs weren't there for Netflix original content. That became a bonus, but their model was based on having access to almost everything. If most of those people, lets say 60%, are there to watch older, well-known/cult shows, what happens when those shows are elsewhere? Without the Mouse content, you know how many parents will drop it?And once their subs greatly reduce, all of those production studios will begin to shop their shows elsewhere.



"Make it a Blockbuster night" was once as iconic as that.

Netflix is still growing tho breh. Up %9 year over year and that’s with all these companies pulling content

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

I’m looking at some more data. 25% of likely Disney+ subs said they’ll cancel another streaming service as a result of signup. 40% of those would cut Netflix.

(I work in this field)