Quote:
Originally Posted by Horizon
If the six Hollywood companies currently share the proceeds of the £24 pot, which makes it they get £4 each, if spread evenly, why do the companies need 52 million subscribers? They need 13m people paying £4 each, for their own streamers to achieve the same as before.
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Each individually yes.
For all of them to make the same that requires more subscriptions, and households taking multiple subscriptions. I don’t believe that market exists at the level required to achieve the current pot value.
That said, each of the six companies (keeping with the hypothetical numbers for ease) believes it can command a greater share and/or force competitors out of the market altogether they’ll rationally see this is a good thing however to a consumer this is less content and less choice. You predicted above a small core of broadcast services I’d go further and predict a small core of subscription services as opposed to a vast array of choice and competition.
I’ll address one point by Old Boy above before leaving this aside (I’m sure we’d all agree that the conversation is circular, looking at it from different points of view that aren’t likely to reconcile).
I’m quite sure streaming services will be the future as global content providers vertically integrate end to end distribution, that’s not what I’ve ever questioned, I’m saying that most people will be worse off for it if they want to maintain an equivalent service to they get now.
If it was about method of delivery they could work with Sky/Virgin/BT but it isn’t- it’s about driving profits upwards. That comes from the customer base.
If you think there’s tens of millions of potential subscribers outside the pay-tv market desperate to jump in at sub £8 a month then fine. If Virgin stripped TV XL out my package I’d save something like £23 a month and to maintain my current viewing I’d have to get BT Sport at a higher monthly cost. If you think that wouldn’t be the same with a £5 provider here, an £8 provider there and it wouldn’t suddenly add up to more for the vast majority then we just fundamentally disagree about the market as a whole.