Rick...you make some very good points. I agree with you that one of the reasons for the 90% adoption rate of the linear Pay TV bundle in the US market at its peak (~2013) was due to there not being as much competition for consumer attention. Today, there are certainly households where TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and other non-Hollywood diversions on the internet are considered enough to provide daily entertainment. So getting 90 percent adoption (and the related engagement) is likely beyond where the theoretical max is today. Good competition will have that effect! But I do believe the optimal outcome for traditional Hollywood companies at this point (mergers and lower debt levels could change this statement of course) is to architect an everything product and price it extremely attractively in order to earn scaled engagement.
I think in a lot of ways we're not that far apart. And one thing I didn't mention was that the pandemic had its own unexpected impact on the streaming business.
I think in theory an everything product makes sense. But getting there...?
Part of it is just technology. Streamers are struggling with UX issues and content discovery with sites that are well short of including everything. I have strong doubts someone can effectively solve that problem.
And for some companies, one of the things they like about their own service is having that direct one-on-one relationship with subscribers. I suspect Paramount wouldn't mind the trade-off. I'm not convinced Disney would be as easy to convince.
Thanks for the comments. Feel free to chime in anytime. You're one of the rare veterans of this space.
Rick...you make some very good points. I agree with you that one of the reasons for the 90% adoption rate of the linear Pay TV bundle in the US market at its peak (~2013) was due to there not being as much competition for consumer attention. Today, there are certainly households where TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and other non-Hollywood diversions on the internet are considered enough to provide daily entertainment. So getting 90 percent adoption (and the related engagement) is likely beyond where the theoretical max is today. Good competition will have that effect! But I do believe the optimal outcome for traditional Hollywood companies at this point (mergers and lower debt levels could change this statement of course) is to architect an everything product and price it extremely attractively in order to earn scaled engagement.
I think in a lot of ways we're not that far apart. And one thing I didn't mention was that the pandemic had its own unexpected impact on the streaming business.
I think in theory an everything product makes sense. But getting there...?
Part of it is just technology. Streamers are struggling with UX issues and content discovery with sites that are well short of including everything. I have strong doubts someone can effectively solve that problem.
And for some companies, one of the things they like about their own service is having that direct one-on-one relationship with subscribers. I suspect Paramount wouldn't mind the trade-off. I'm not convinced Disney would be as easy to convince.
Thanks for the comments. Feel free to chime in anytime. You're one of the rare veterans of this space.