Streaming services decline for first time!

[XIII]

The Walking Dead is the same, Fox had life of series first run rights and so the episodes of the final series are on Disney+.

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I suppose it's like the old ITV model, or commercial radio.  There were too many groups and with hindsight it's obvious they'd have to come together eventually.  And I think that's true here.  There's simply too many providers and the market is too fragmented.  In the way that Global and Bauer have taken the lead in eating the smaller fish in commercial radio, two or more providers will have to take the initiative in the streaming arena. 

My gut says that might end up being Disney and Amazon.  Meanwhile, I believe BritBox will ultimately split with ITV X and the BBC iPlayer taking over in the end.  There's still a (not entirely unfair) argument with BBC content that you've already paid for it once anyway!

Certainly if ITV were to acquire Channel 4, that puts ITV in a *very* strong position with a very rich catalogue free of charge.

On that note, one wonders if free ad-supported models are a potential way forward?  If you watch a recording on your PVR, you can fast forward through the ads.  With streaming, you have to watch them - no option.  I'd have imagined that advertisers would much prefer to part with cash in the latter scenario - not to mention that geographic targeting is also then made very easy, and thanks to IP all the data and insight they can eat on impacts etc.  I could certainly live with ads in the middle of Bridgerton or The Crown if it saved me £14 a month!

That's just a load of rubbish because a lot of BBC content is by indies who have to make money from the programme they make.