We’re going through a transitional moment in live streaming – user growth is slowing and major players are slowing down as well Looking to consolidateBut the long-promised dream of profitability has finally emerged in hand (especially If you are Netflix).
Perfect time for the New York Times To interview many big names in the industry — including Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Amazon Prime Video chief Mike Hopkins, and IAC chief Barry Diller — on what they think will come next.
There seems to be broad agreement on most of the big topics: more advertising, higher prices, and less big swings on prestige television. Uniting all these changes is the shift towards profitability, rather than growth at all costs. If the initial prices of many streaming services seemed unsustainably low at launch, they turned out to be so, as prices have been steadily rising, while streaming companies have also offered affordable subscription levels for viewers willing to watch ads.
In fact, some executives told the Times that streamers will continue to raise prices for ad-free tiers with the goal of getting more customers to sign up for ad-supported subscriptions instead.
The growth of ad-supported streaming can also affect the types of movies and shows that are produced, since advertisers generally want to reach a large audience — think the heyday of ad-supported network television, with its endless shows about doctors and cops, compared to the more ambitious fare on HBO supported by subscription.
That shift is already underway at streaming, though executives insist they’re not giving up their hopes of finding the next “Sopranos” or “House of Cards.” Sarandos (which actually was backing down Of his decade-long boast that he wants Netflix to be “HBO before HBO becomes us”), he said Netflix could “make prestige TV at scale,” but added: “We don’t just make prestige.”
Likewise, Hopkins said that at Prime Video, “procedurals and other tried-and-true formats work well for us, but we also need big twists that will make customers say ‘Wow, I can’t believe this just happened’ and will make people tell their friends.” .'”
Other unsurprising predictions include increased investment in live sports (“the simpler and more interesting thing,” according to Warner Bros. Discovery board member John Malone), more consolidation, and either closing or consolidating some existing services. There’s apparently a consensus among executives that streamers need at least 200 million subscribers to be “big enough to compete,” as former Disney CEO Bob Chapek said.
Some of these changes may be welcome, but they reinforce the sense that streaming — at least as the executives currently running the company envision it — won’t be all that different from the old cable TV ecosystem. Some things will be better (custom supply), some things will be worse (Compensation of writers, actors and other talent), and there may be different players at the top. But in many ways, it will look like the same old TV.