This weekend, millions of Americans will tune in live on the Old Guard Television Network. We're talking, of course, about the Super Bowl on CBS. While more and more people are watching movies and shows online, live sports coverage is one thing that still doesn't draw many viewers to traditional television. But the competitive and perhaps oversaturated streaming space isn't all that exciting either.
Acquiring new subscribers is difficult. Most services are not yet profitable. And in today's decentralized environment, consumers long for simpler times when they could stream all their favorite shows on one or two platforms for less than $15 a month.
But Eleanor Patterson, a media studies professor at Auburn University, said Netflix and Hulu were offering these cheap subscriptions and large content libraries at a significant loss.
“That's the Silicon Valley model: focus on scaling first and then worry about profitability,” Patterson said.
This model did not take into account further competition. Over time, big tech companies and traditional media companies joined the movement. Amazon Prime Video became popular worldwide in 2016. Soon after, Disney, HBO, Peacock, and Paramount launched streaming divisions.
“And when they launched their own service, they said, 'I'm going to get all of me back.' [intellectual property]'' Patterson said.
Popular shows were spread across multiple platforms, requiring four or five subscriptions to watch them all. Streamers have also begun jacking up subscription prices, in part to push consumers into cheaper ad-supported tiers to ensure profitability. Still, many monthly streaming bills are approaching the cost of the cable bundles we abandoned a decade ago.
“What I'm saying is, this is a big mess,” Patterson said.
It's not just the viewers. “The business has been through a rough patch over the past three to four years,” said J. Christopher Hamilton, a professor of television, radio and film at Syracuse University and an entertainment lawyer.
In addition to revenue challenges, Hamilton said the streaming sector is recalibrating after the pandemic-driven boom-bust cycle and the 2023 Hollywood strike.
“One of the things we've learned from this is that there's no getting away from consumers wanting their cake and eating it too,” he said.
Streamers have to find a way to continue delivering popular shows at prices we can live with, which is difficult in such a crowded field.
“But if you listen to these CEOs, I think the media space will become much more condensed,” Hamilton said. In a few years, “it's quite possible that there will be only three major companies.”
It's a lot like the old days of television. Speaking of which, Parrot Analytics' Brandon Katz says we should expect streamers' ad volumes to continue to increase.
“Due to price pressure, [streamers] We will continue to strive to drive as many people into our advertising tier as possible,” Katz said.
On the content side, he predicts a “creative decline” over the next few years. During the anything-goes growing up era, he said, many lofty, artistically daring shows (think “Fleabag”) got the green light.
“Peak TV has really peaked,” Katz said. “From a programming perspective, this is really a race to the middle. Everyone wants commercial fare that has that broad appeal.”
After all, most of us just want to watch some boring sitcom or old network drama on loop. Universal's 2011 legal drama “Suits” was the most streamed show in 2023, according to a recent analysis by Nielsen. “NCIS,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Big Bang Theory” also topped the list, easily topping the most-watched streaming shows. The original is “Ted Lasso”.
“When I ask my students what their favorite show is, they're like 'Friends' or 'Seinfeld,'” Patterson said. Streamers “exterminated the stations that produced these shows, and now they're like parasites that don't know how to create their own versions.”
Patterson said the most popular products on streaming services are decades-old network shows, and while many of us are frustrated by the decentralization of streaming, it's hard to know what to watch. He said it shows that there is no TV guide to tell you.
“People want that all-in-one box. They want that all-in-one magic stick that has everything. And people will pay $100 a month for that,” she said. Ta.
Streaming is eliminating competition and becoming competition again. Perhaps that's what we all want.
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