VOD : Netflix/Streaming Services

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Chris

I’m surprised that despite streamers now collectively having almost 50% penetration in UK households, they’re still so far behind in minutes watched. Also, almost all the most popular streaming content is stuff that has been, is currently being, shown on broadcast tv (Friends, Brooklyn-9-9, The Good Place, etc). Even Clarkson is basically just doing Top Gear with a different name.

Streaming providers have obviously still got a very long way to go before they are seen as TV channels in their own right, rather than just glorified catch up services.

It's the trend we need to watch The amount of streaming is increasing steadily and traditionally broadcast TV is dropping off.

We must all remember that old habits die hard. People are so used to just turning on the box and flicking between channels that it is second nature. It seems that there is a substantial proportion of the population that resort to streaming only when they conclude that there is nothing else on worth watching.

However, I remain confident that as people get used to watching their streaming services, they will start to see that by doing so they are improving the quality of their viewing and wasting less time watching rubbish.

It is true that the main terrestrials - BBC1 and 2, ITV and Channel 4 are improving the quantity and quality of their dramas, and they will have to do even better to hold on to their audiences in the future. The changing landscape (such as the recent OFCOM approval for the i-Player, the launch of Britbox in a few months and the range of new streaming services we can expect to see here in the UK over the next few years) will put the broadcast channels under increased strain. The millenial generation, I think, will be much more into VOD than older generations. All of this will eat away at our channels, and if the streaming services keep all their content for themselves in the future (the jury is out on that one), the broadcast channels will struggle to survive.

By 2035, I think they will have given up the fight.

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2019...iewing-slides/

Some 42% of UK adults now consider online video services to be their main way of watching TV and film, and 38% say they could envisage not watching traditional broadcast television at all in five years’ time.

---------- Post added at 14:48 ---------- Previous post was at 14:40 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

Forbes no less, not a blog or little known digital marketing company.

As I've been banging the drum from some time: streaming isn't exempt from economics. It isn't the game changer that Old Boy etc. are claiming it to be. It slightly reduces the barrier to entry to pay-tv (no need for specialist equipment, lower price for now). However consumers don't have an infinite amount of time to watch TV, nor an infinite supply of money from which to pay for it. There isn't space for everyone to just join in and assume each consumer is going to find an extra £5-10 a month to cover it.

You seem also to want to ignore any other organisation, such as the BBC and Netflix themselves, if they don't say what you want to hear.

Of course streaming services are not exempt from economics. My arguments with you have been because you seem to have a very blinkered approach to the subject. Yes, you can say that Netflix have huge debts and currently growth is slowing, but you neglect to envision that Netflix will have detailed plans to address these issues, which they are not necessarily going to share publicly at this stage.

Netflix still have a lot of growing to do worldwide and this should not be underestimated. News of their demise, as they say, is premature.

[jfman]

As always speculative visions of the future and cold heard reality can be two different things.

You say "given up the fight" as if anyone strongly feels in favour of what's simply a mechanism for watching television.

You're also assuming, incorrectly, that people who are younger won't prioritise the convenience of broadcast, DVR and operators on demand content when they get older and need to make more effective use of limited time with jobs, families, etc.

People want to improve the quality of their TV, I wholeheartedly agree, but 2% of all streaming being friends I don't think people will see quality where you expect them to.

Netflix are sounding the alarms as we speak on their own future. That's something I couldn't possibly ignore!

The BBC haven't committed to anything as far as I can tell.

Gotta love the way you just pluck dates out of the air like that OB. 2035, according to which crystal ball?

Also, this: “We must all remember that old habits die hard. People are so used to just turning on the box and flicking between channels that it is second nature. It seems that there is a substantial proportion of the population that resort to streaming only when they conclude that there is nothing else on worth watching” is essentially the argument I’ve been making to you for about 5 years now, with the minor difference that it’s not a habit, as if it were something inconvenient or antisocial, it’s convenient, because working age people and those with families still value the work broadcasters do in presenting a planned schedule.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

As always speculative visions of the future and cold heard reality can be two different things.

You say "given up the fight" as if anyone strongly feels in favour of what's simply a mechanism for watching television.

You're also assuming, incorrectly, that people who are younger won't prioritise the convenience of broadcast, DVR and operators on demand content when they get older and need to make more effective use of limited time with jobs, families, etc.

People want to improve the quality of their TV, I wholeheartedly agree, but 2% of all streaming being friends I don't think people will see quality where you expect them to.

Netflix are sounding the alarms as we speak on their own future. That's something I couldn't possibly ignore!

The BBC haven't committed to anything as far as I can tell.

I meant that the channels would have given up the fight.

Frankly, I don't know how you can describe scheduled TV as being more convenient, when you have to sit through programmes you don't want to see until your planned programme is on, when there is an inability to have a decent social life and also see the programmes you want to see (unless you go to the trouble of recording them) and when the only way of testing out what you might want to see there and then is through channel hopping, which is usually a bad experience.

If you have a busy life, you want to make your viewing experience count, so I can't see the millenials growing up will change the way they are used to watching TV. And by having all your favourite streamed programmes listed in 'my shows' on one box, what could be easier?

---------- Post added at 15:28 ---------- Previous post was at 15:21 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Gotta love the way you just pluck dates out of the air like that OB. 2035, according to which crystal ball?

Also, this: “We must all remember that old habits die hard. People are so used to just turning on the box and flicking between channels that it is second nature. It seems that there is a substantial proportion of the population that resort to streaming only when they conclude that there is nothing else on worth watching” is essentially the argument I’ve been making to you for about 5 years now, with the minor difference that it’s not a habit, as if it were something inconvenient or antisocial, it’s convenient, because working age people and those with families still value the work broadcasters do in presenting a planned schedule.

2035 is just a random date, Chris. I use it to minimise the number of jibes I kept getting that when I said linear channels would be gone in 20 years, that that prediction would always be 20 years ahead. I made the comment in 2015, so I am sticking to my original prediction that the broadcast channels will be gone by then, 2035. I have drawn attention before to the fact that the BBC is planning on traditional channels disappearing after the next TV licence review, so I don't think I'm a million miles away from the truth.

As I said to jfman above, I don't see anything convenient in watching programmes the traditional way. That wastes so much time..

[jfman]

Why would channels "give up the fight"? Eyeballs means money, and viewers are watching broadcast televison above all else.

Broadcast television is incredibly convenient. You press the on button and go. My gran could even do it, before she died in the late 90s. My niece can do it, and she's four. Does my big brother want to leave her with an iPad and a YouTube app to watch Iraqi beheadings? No.

What could be better than a streaming service with "all your favourite shows" - by which I assume you mean all your favourite shows from a single supplier - would be a V6 or a Sky Q merging all the different broadcast methods into one.

[Media Boy UK]

Media Boy Sources has confirmed that NOWTV hope to launch Universal Channel, Movies 24 and E! by 2020.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

Why would channels "give up the fight"? Eyeballs means money, and viewers are watching broadcast televison above all else.

Broadcast television is incredibly convenient. You press the on button and go. My gran could even do it, before she died in the late 90s. My niece can do it, and she's four. Does my big brother want to leave her with an iPad and a YouTube app to watch Iraqi beheadings? No.

What could be better than a streaming service with "all your favourite shows" - by which I assume you mean all your favourite shows from a single supplier - would be a V6 or a Sky Q merging all the different broadcast methods into one.

While the eyeballs are there, they are safe. The question is, how long before they are tempted to stray?

Yes, if you are prepared to sit down and watch whatever is thrown at you, traditional broadcasting is fine. Has it really come to that, though? Are we really that pathetic as a nation that we are happy to sit and watch anything?

Your i-Pad/YouTube example is strange. I thought we were talking about TV. You live in a world of your own, jfman!

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

While the eyeballs are there, they are safe. The question is, how long before they are tempted to stray?

Yes, if you are prepared to sit down and watch whatever is thrown at you, traditional broadcasting is fine. Has it really come to that, though? Are we really that pathetic as a nation that we are happy to sit and watch anything?

Your i-Pad/YouTube example is strange. I thought we were talking about TV. You live in a world of your own, jfman!

Emotive...

You appear to be stating that others, who may have different viewing habits to you, are "pathetic"...

[denphone]

l watch plenty of traditional broadcasting as does my family and we certainly don't watch "anything" as we are all pretty choosey in our taste so to be called "pathetic" is quite simply laughable.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

While the eyeballs are there, they are safe. The question is, how long before they are tempted to stray?

Yes, if you are prepared to sit down and watch whatever is thrown at you, traditional broadcasting is fine. Has it really come to that, though? Are we really that pathetic as a nation that we are happy to sit and watch anything?

Your i-Pad/YouTube example is strange. I thought we were talking about TV. You live in a world of your own, jfman!

Ah so the broadcasters will go... Once the viewers give up. Yet you can't say when that will happen, as demonstrated time and again the most popular content remains on linear TV and the original broadcast gets most hits.

I don't think dismissing parental concern, as you just have, is reasonable. I think it actually shows, somewhat unsurprisingly, how out of touch you are. It's little wonder you see a narrow and bleak future given you can't understand the complex depth of viewing choices.

I think it's pathetic that statistically one in fifty people currently streaming from the'vast and wide range of content available are watching Friends. All day every day, the same rubbish getting peddled over and over.

[buckeye]

For those saying Disney has pulled off a blinder by bundling Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ together I don't think you realise that ESPN+ is not full fat ESPN but rather a $5 a month addon that shows what is for Americans minority sports like Serie A and the Football League.
Most Americans would not subscribe to this addon subscription, so really they are getting Disney and Hulu for $12:99 and I bet its not the UHD ad free version of Hulu.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by buckeye

For those saying Disney has pulled off a blinder by bundling Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ together I don't think you realise that ESPN+ is not full fat ESPN but rather a $5 a month addon that shows what is for Americans minority sports like Serie A and the Football League.
Most Americans would not subscribe to this addon subscription, so really they are getting Disney and Hulu for $12:99 and I bet its not the UHD ad free version of Hulu.

But they’ve got big pockets, will blow Sky out the water next time.... the usual. All for the princely sum of $12.99.

[vincerooney]

Originally Posted by jfman

But they’ve got big pockets, will blow Sky out the water next time.... the usual. All for the princely sum of $12.99.

Isn’t that offer just in America though? It’ll probably be 9.99 just for Disney+ in the uk. Hulu doesn’t exist in the uk and ESPN and their rights don’t exist in the Uk?

[jfman]

Originally Posted by vincerooney

Isn’t that offer just in America though? It’ll probably be 9.99 just for Disney+ in the uk. Hulu doesn’t exist in the uk and ESPN and their rights don’t exist in the Uk?

It is, I was just being sarcastic.

[Legendkiller2k]

Originally Posted by vincerooney

Isn’t that offer just in America though? It’ll probably be 9.99 just for Disney+ in the uk. Hulu doesn’t exist in the uk and ESPN and their rights don’t exist in the Uk?

ESPN is licenced to BT in the UK, HULU has been rumoured to launch in UK next year, also 2020 is when Disney+ launch in uk.
UK already kind off has Disney+ in the form of Disneylife which costs £4.99p/m.

ESPN+ offers a lot more these days including UFC, Boxing, Football league, MLS, baseball, basketball amongst other things.