Streaming services decline for first time!

[Neil Jones]

The argument re: advertising is you're paying the fee to avoid said advertising, although that being said the entire argument falls down because of Sky (and Now), as there you are paying and watching adverts, and the same for Virgin (though in fairness Sky do make original content for their portfolio of channels and feed the football, whereas Virgin sold their TV arm arm to Sky years ago and now they're more about broadband)

Of the step up from broadcaster on-demand services, IMDb TV has probably proved the option of free content with adverts is viable. IMDb TV's ad structure is very American though, as you might expect, and a lot of it is just recycled from Prime.

[Keith]

I think some kind of consolidation or aggregation will come along in the future but an Amazon Vs Disney battle to suck up other providers contents will be an intriguing one.

Perhaps worth noting that Disney+ appears to have some external content. For example it currently includes NCIS, which is a CBS Studios production. (Most series are also available on Amazon Prime, recently shown episodes on My5, and possibly also a few episodes on CBS Catch-up.)

[RR]

I think some kind of consolidation or aggregation will come along in the future but an Amazon Vs Disney battle to suck up other providers contents will be an intriguing one.

Perhaps worth noting that Disney+ appears to have some external content. For example it currently includes NCIS, which is a CBS Studios production. (Most series are also available on Amazon Prime, recently shown episodes on My5, and possibly also a few episodes on CBS Catch-up.)

Isn't that largely the UK only, and because it is using up content paid for as part of the Fox Channel here, that Disney shut down when it took it over? I would expect that as such contracts reach their end that that such non-Disney content, especially that geographically separated, will disappear from Disney+.

[telebox2001]

And you get adverts on the football from Amazon...

[JAS84]

I think some kind of consolidation or aggregation will come along in the future but an Amazon Vs Disney battle to suck up other providers contents will be an intriguing one.

Perhaps worth noting that Disney+ appears to have some external content. For example it currently includes NCIS, which is a CBS Studios production. (Most series are also available on Amazon Prime, recently shown episodes on My5, and possibly also a few episodes on CBS Catch-up.)

Isn't that largely the UK only, and because it is using up content paid for as part of the Fox Channel here, that Disney shut down when it took it over? I would expect that as such contracts reach their end that that such non-Disney content, especially that geographically separated, will disappear from Disney+.

Yes, Disney+ has NCIS because it aired on Fox Channel. Presumably when the contract runs out, it'll move to Paramount+ (which should've launched here by then), considering Paramount own both CBS and Channel 5.

[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+.

---

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.

[telebox2001]

Don't disagree on the indie front, but in house stuff I can see that side of the argument.

[Brekkie]

Nobody has time to watch everything on every service, its not possible.  Six hundred broadcast channels, the major catch-up services, half a dozen streaming services each having literally thousands and thousands of hours of content... 

Netflix (it says --> here ) <-- had 38k hours of content up to last April. 

How much of that is original content?

One thing where Netflix has lost the advantage too is with acquired original content - they were originally able to pick up content not being picked up by traditional broadcasters for broadcast elsewhere, probably more so with British content in the US than US content here, but as the number of streamers have multiplied and somewhat created a more direct route for content without a competitive (or more to the point, uncompetitive) bidding process, content that used to be a selling point of Netflix is now the starting point of other services.

[Omnipresent]

The Hollywood Reporter has a feature on the internal politics behind Netflix's woes:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busine...235136004/

Several important Netflix creators voice a very consistent theory about what’s gone wrong with the streamer’s culture. They see a link between Netflix’s problems and the 2020 fall of Cindy Holland, who played a key role in launching the service’s originals — brilliantly and often expensively — with House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black and Stranger Things, among others.

[whoiam989]

The Hollywood Reporter has a feature on the internal politics behind Netflix's woes:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busine...235136004/

Several important Netflix creators voice a very consistent theory about what’s gone wrong with the streamer’s culture. They see a link between Netflix’s problems and the 2020 fall of Cindy Holland, who played a key role in launching the service’s originals — brilliantly and often expensively — with House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black and Stranger Things, among others.

Time to promote Minyoung Kim (currently the Vice President of Content across South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand) to a bigger role, then? Kim helped Netflix acquire quality third-party South Korean series and films, and launched a number of well-known South Korean original series for the global streamer, including Kingdom, The School Nurse Files, Sweet Home and, most notably, Squid Game.

• "Netflix exec behind ‘Squid Game’ wants to invest more in the ‘K-Wave’—and hints at a possible season 2", Fortune (paywalled article)
  
• "‘Squid Game’: Netflix’s Top Exec in Asia Explains the Show’s Huge Global Appeal", The Hollywood Reporter
  

[MrBiggieSMLZ]

Sooner or later, I presume Netflix could find itself a takeover target, based upon those cutbacks.

[bkman1990]

I have also noticed that there has been a lot of discussion about cutting the use of streaming services during this difficult financial crisis in various points of debate either online or on national media outlets for the past few days now.

I actually watched a consumer affairs programme on RTÉ One called The Price of Everything which was about the topic of Entertainment in Ireland. One of the presenters named Conor Pope, who is consumer editor for The Irish Times, had said that Irish people were spending €1 billion a year on streaming services in the Republic of Ireland before the cost of living crisis began to hit the country.

There was a technology reporter from Newstalk on the programme last night, which is a current affairs radio station in Dublin, who was being interviewed by the other RTÉ presenter Sheena Obdigo about her use of subscription services which are the other services as opposed to just using video streaming services alone. At one point in the interview; the Newstalk reporter was mentioning that she spent €230 pm on subscription services before she had made some effort to try and cut back on her usage. She did cut down the spending to about €120 before she had been interviewed by RTÉ.

When I looked at that interview; I was completely shocked in how she was spending all of that money while she was what working in a supposedly highly paid job in journalism. She eventually understood the concept that she should have the intelligence to cancel these services sooner whenever they didn't suit her.

There is also a podcast episode from Indo Daily which is from the Irish Independent newspaper which discusses the use of these streaming services in Ireland. I haven't listened to the episode yet. It up here on Google Podcasts of you want to have a listen.

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM...Mzg0?ep=14

[Brekkie]

Unsurprisingly people are cutting subscriptions now as the cost of living bites and the FTA players are benefitting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62057950

[JAS84]

A lot of the comments on that article are complaining that iPlayer isn't free like the article claims because of the license fee. 

[WillPS]

A lot of the comments on that article are complaining that iPlayer isn't free like the article claims because of the license fee. 

Valid criticism, no?