Who Will Win the Streaming War?

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In November of 2019, the live streaming wars kicked into full gear with the release over both Apple TV+ and Disney+. Both decided to get into the streaming business, and take on streaming giants, Netflix, YouTube and Amazon. Disney added to their competitive brands Hulu as well as ESPN+ which have had success gaining eyeballs. CBS already has CBS all-access and NBC is poised to launch Peacock. HBO and Showtime have been in the space nearly as long as Netflix. With all these competitors out there, consolidation is likely to occur. The losers will see their profits dwindle while the winners could experience big gains.

What is Occurring?

What is clear to content providers is that the television is a medium of the past. Thousands of viewers consume content in 2020 through devises such as their phone or tablet. In colleges across the world students are watching shows on their laptops. The type of content that is now available is endless. Everything from sports to news or original programming is now streamed live over the internet. What is also clear is that streaming services are spending lots of money to attract views, as the streaming wars accelerate. While Disney+ has attracted more than 28-million paid viewers since its launch in November of 2019, this is only a fraction of the leader Netflix. To gain traction, some live streaming companies are focusing on gaming as well. In 2020, several new live streaming game companies are moving away from Twitch and on to Youtube.

The Winners and the Losers

The winners in the streaming wars should be the consumer. The customers can now shop for the best streaming product with the content they like the most and drop the streaming services that offer the least. Some of these services are more expensive. Some of the older services such as HBO cost more than $15 per month. This compares to $6.99 for Disney+. The consumer can now determine if the catalogue of shows is worth the cost. There is also the benefit of being able to drop a content provider when the shows are not interesting. The most likely scenario is that content providers will be forced to lower their prices to compete. This in turn will reduce profitability and could weigh on the stock trading price of many of these content providers.

Each Product Offers Something Different

While Disney has a huge catalogue of movies and shows, their current original program is lacking when compared to Netflix, HBO, Showtime and Amazon Prime. For parents that have young children, Disney+ is very attractive. For those who are looking for Original programing, HBO, Showtime and Netflix top the charts. Amazon Prime video comes free for those who purchase Amazon Prime membership, which generally focuses on next day deliver from the consumer distribution giant. Netflix is the king of providing original programing to its viewers. Netflix offers a combination of original programming and licensed content. This includes TV shows that are licensed from other companies as well as movies used to be in theaters.

Amazon is unique in that it operates on a hybrid model. You get lots of content for the price of a subscription, but you can also rent a movie for a 48-hour period for additional fees. This allows you to see new movies that are recently released.

One of the benefits of all these services is that they are available in many formats. You can stream videos through smart TVs as well as your laptop or desktop. In addition, all the competitive services are available through an app that you can download via iOS or the Google Play. Regardless of the service you choose, increasing competition will likely lead to consolidation and the losers will pay a steep toll to compete in this arena.