Bonfire of Streamers

[jfman]

With many speculating that the streaming bubble is due to pop - who do you think will survive?

Entertainment/Movies
Amazon Prime - £9 a month
Apple TV - £9 a month
Discovery+ - basic £4, standard £7
Disney+ - with ads plan: £5 a month, standard: £8 a month
Hayu - £5 a month
ITVX - £6 a month premium
Mubi - £12 a month
Netflix - £5 with ads, £8 one device, £11 “standard”, £16 “premium”
Now - £10 a month entertainment, £10 cinema
Paramount+ £7 a month

Sports
DAZN - £10 (12 months), £20 a month flexible
Premier Sports - £11 a month
TNT Sports on Discovery+ £31 a month

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/08/e...ros/index.html

The market in the United States – obviously with a far greater user base and capability to sustain more providers – is already ringing the alarm bells.

Simply put, paying for ESPN if you don’t like sports, or CNN and MSNBC if you don’t watch news, might have been irritating, but those millions of cable subscriptions spread out the revenue in a way that made dozens and dozens of channels available and affordable.

The dream of a more a la carte system, where you pay for what you watch, has turned out to elusive, primarily because there’s no way – at least yet – to adopt that where the cost doesn’t become onerous, and maybe even prohibitive, for many consumers.

We've certainly come a long way from a basic entertainment package being in a 3 for £30 cable service with a basic phone and broadband service. Even Virgin's original VIP package at £100 in 2010 looks a veritable bargain once you add a £25 a month broadband to even a small selection of the above.

[peanut]

Just don't commit to one or two at a time. Take Netflix out and cancel the next day, watch what you want for the month then go onto another one and just keep doing that. (Or just download the content you want).

[jfman]

Originally Posted by peanut

Just don't commit to one or two at a time. Take Netflix out and cancel the next day, watch what you want for the month then go onto another one and just keep doing that. (Or just download the content you want).

At those eye-watering prices it wouldn't surprise me if many turned to illegal downloads.

It's being rumoured a number of services are considering a prohibitive 'activation fee' to discourage people dabbling in one or two streamers at a time and varying them throughout the year. Obviously, the shareholders don't want their products to be regarded as 'disposable' and it creates a volatility in subscriber numbers they could do without.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by jfman

At those eye-watering prices it wouldn't surprise me if many turned to illegal downloads.

It's being rumoured a number of services are considering a prohibitive 'activation fee' to discourage people dabbling in one or two streamers at a time and varying them throughout the year. Obviously, the shareholders don't want their products to be regarded as 'disposable' and it creates a volatility in subscriber numbers they could do without.

If that's the case then I'd be looking elsewhere. Any kind of minimum term other than 1 month which is fine and acceptable but if that changes then I'm sure they will lose out in the end. The customer won't care what they think, but no way would I sign up to any without the right to cancel when I like.

Apple TV & Disney will likely survive simply because of how big their parent companies are.
Hayu,Mubi - Never heard of either of them. ITVX seems pointless. Netflix will priobably survive for now.
Amazon Prime - will probably survive, many (like me) have it because of the Prime Delivery, not for the TV.
Now - will probably survive as its part of Sky. Paramount+ I get free with Sky, a bit odd as I dont have movies anymore, but they never stopped it.

Sports - dont use any of them, can really say if they'll survive or not.

[OLD BOY]

It’s impossible to say. The streamers are continually eying up the market and keeping tabs on their competitors. Who knows where the pieces will fall? I fully expect consolidation to take place, but I suspect it will be a while yet before everything settles down.

[jfman]

Consolidation is merely the concession over how few of them have business models.

There’s a reason the pay-tv model in almost every developed market coalesced around competing satellite and cable platforms. In the analogue satellite days people could, should they wished, launch their own channels with separate viewing cards and decoders.

Similarly under Sky Digital they are required to make available the Videoguard service to any two bob operator that wants to launch a channel. What do we see? A plethora of soft-porn, Premier Sports, DAZN and a graveyard of former sports channels. U-Direct, Setanta, ESPN. Deep pockets venture capital dried up when the business (also known as customers) weren’t there.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

With many speculating that the streaming bubble is due to pop - who do you think will survive?

Entertainment/Movies
Amazon Prime - £9 a month
Apple TV - £9 a month
Discovery+ - basic £4, standard £7
Disney+ - with ads plan: £5 a month, standard: £8 a month
Hayu - £5 a month
ITVX - £6 a month premium
Mubi - £12 a month
Netflix - £5 with ads, £8 one device, £11 “standard”, £16 “premium”
Now - £10 a month entertainment, £10 cinema
Paramount+ £7 a month

Sports
DAZN - £10 (12 months), £20 a month flexible
Premier Sports - £11 a month
TNT Sports on Discovery+ £31 a month

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/08/e...ros/index.html

The market in the United States – obviously with a far greater user base and capability to sustain more providers – is already ringing the alarm bells.



We've certainly come a long way from a basic entertainment package being in a 3 for £30 cable service with a basic phone and broadband service. Even Virgin's original VIP package at £100 in 2010 looks a veritable bargain once you add a £25 a month broadband to even a small selection of the above.

Well, we are where we are, but my choice out of that list would be:

Amazon Prime - £9 a month*
Apple TV - £9 a month*
Discovery+ - basic £4, standard £7
Disney+ - with ads plan: £5 a month*, standard: £8 a month
ITVX - £6 a month* premium
Netflix - £5 with ads, £8 one device, £11 “standard”, £16 “premium”*
Now - £10 a month entertainment*, £10 cinema
Paramount+ £7 a month*

Assuming your subscription figures are correct (I haven’t checked them) I would be spending a total of £82 on that lot. However, as I am already paying for those services I’ve asterisked, I would be saving the complete range of pay channels if I went for Virgin Stream without Sky, and I would only spend £17 extra (by including Discovery+ and Now Cinema in my package), so that’s definitely a saving on my current expenditure.

But as has been pointed out, you can make use of a selection of streamers for a period and then swap to other streamers if you want to save money. But I think the real story here is the sheer choice of content we now have available to us. Netflix alone provides far more dramas than all the TV dramas on the channels put together, and you can get the full range of BBC material anyway on the i-Player.

Certainly, I intend to hop in and out of NOW Entertainment and Cinema as there’s no longer much on there worth watching that I haven’t already seen. That’s £20 saved most months on that future streaming bill.

The real comparison for you to make jfman, is on a like-for-like basis. So if you look at what channels you can get on Sky, and compare this with the equivalent streaming services, you will get a correct picture.

So you need to look at NOW TV Entertainment and Cinema (£20), Discovery+ (£4), Disney+ (£5), so that’s just £29, but with more choice. That compares very well with the existing Sky and Entertainment packages.

But it is even better than that. NOW is always making offers available, and I’ve been paying £3.99 for the Entertainment Pack for many months now.

I don’t subscribe to Sports channels, so you might like to compare those prices.

[jfman]

That’s an absolutely eye-watering amount for a lot of general entertainment content compared with the previous position only a decade ago, even adjusted for the high levels of inflation this country has endured in the early 2020s.

Everyone knows sports is what has kept gravy train going for Sky where the high value customers are. This is reflected in the value of the rights compared to the pennies per month per subscriber Sky and Virgin were paying third parties for general entertainment. They’ve either called it wrong since the very inception of pay-television or some of these content providers are in for a rude awakening.

Don’t forget to add the price of broadband onto any outgoings, if we are comparing price value against Cable packages…

"Now" is on my watch list as Sky slowly start using more streaming.

I could get the Sports & Entertainment (+Boost) for less than my Sky Q, and probably more reliable for multiroom.
I have found the Sky Q Mini's to be very flakey over WiFi, so I finally got around to running some network cables to directly connect them to my LAN.

The Sky Q ability to record and/or download shows is a big advantage it has over Now (for the family, not me so much).

I actually considered dropping sports from Q, and switching to using Now for it.
In the end, Sky offered a reasonable discount on Sport for 2 years, which I took, so I'll review again in 2026.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Don’t forget to add the price of broadband onto any outgoings, if we are comparing price value against Cable packages…

That’s only relevant if you weren’t paying for broadband before.Anyhow, broadband is necessary these days for far more than watching TV.

---------- Post added at 19:24 ---------- Previous post was at 19:22 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

That’s an absolutely eye-watering amount for a lot of general entertainment content compared with the previous position only a decade ago, even adjusted for the high levels of inflation this country has endured in the early 2020s.

Everyone knows sports is what has kept gravy train going for Sky where the high value customers are. This is reflected in the value of the rights compared to the pennies per month per subscriber Sky and Virgin were paying third parties for general entertainment. They’ve either called it wrong since the very inception of pay-television or some of these content providers are in for a rude awakening.

Yes it is, but as I said, like for like (ie comparing it with Sky and cable entertainment packages including Sky Cinema), the relevant streamers in substitution for the channels is very good value at £29.

[jfman]

Sky’s basic package available through Now isn’t (nor are any of “the streamers”) comparable with the packages they and cable operators were retailing in the past with a multitude of content from a broad range of providers across many different genres.

Everyone is selling their own one dimensional product and with the loss of economies of scale the vast majority will be in terminal decline. You have often pined for “content aggregators” to step up. We had those and you’ve cheered their demise every step of the way after falling for the false promise of low cost, ad-free TV.

The price of broadband is absolutely relevant if you had a triple play bundle and you are comparing like for like. Just because someone might also use broadband for something else doesn’t mean they’re not stung in the pocket by £20 notes or above.

[1andrew1]

Deep-pocketeted owners so will continue unless owners wake up on the wrong side of the bed one morning!

1. Apple TV - £9 a month
2. DAZN - £10 (12 months), £20 a month flexible

Market leaders so should continue

• Disney+ - with ads plan: £5 a month, standard: £8 a month
• Now (Comcast) - £10 a month entertainment, £10 cinema. Hayu (Comcast} - £5 a month. Effectively just another Now TV pack
• Amazon Prime - £9 a month
• Netflix - £5 with ads, £8 one device, £11 “standard”, £16 “premium”

That leaves the others:

• ITVX - £6 a month premium. Will probably continue as it's just an advertising-free version of the popular PSB catch-up and on-demand service.
• Mubi - £12 a month. Loss-making in UK so long-term prospects uncertain.
• Discovery+ - basic £4, standard £7; TNT Sports on Discovery+ £31 a month. WarnerBros Discovery (WBD) seems intent on launching Max in 2026 so doubtless these will continue in 2025 before being rolled into it in 2026. Long term, is WBD as a whole viable?
• Paramount+ £7 a month. Could see this ending in the UK, maybe as a tile on Now TV if I'm being generous.
• Premier Sports - £11 a month. They've shown before that they will sell out if someone has the money but have been able to survive independently before.

[Stephen]

I think Netflix and Disney+ will survive.

The streamers with tiered pricing will have a better chance of survival.

You forgot about Disneys premium tier which is £11.99.