The Future of Streaming Services

              So far, I've talked about how streaming services have had good and bad impacts on society, and how streaming services have impacted the media landscape, but now it's time to look at what the future holds. Streaming services have been on an upwards trajectory to this point. For a while the industry was a plateau, with mainly Netflix and Hulu running the show. Disney+ launched in late 2019, which lit a spark in the industry with many other competitors launching their own platforms. According to Forbes, there are over 200 different streaming services available worldwide. In my experience, trends are usually short-lived. Growing popular is one thing, staying popular is another. So, what does the future of streaming services look like?

             Back in my pros and cons blog, I mentioned that the quality of the product offered has been declining while prices are going up. We've already seen some potential remedies to both of these problems. Disney+ has been the main focus of the poor quality, as they usually have 6-episode seasons, which are far too short to properly tell a story. However, with Marvel's most recent show, Agatha All Along, it is 9 episodes that are usually 35 minutes or longer. While this is just one show, it is promising to see that there can be quality shows that are released. Disney+ has also been slightly raising their prices as well (so have other services, Disney+ is the example here), but they have bundled their subscription alongside Hulu and ESPN+. You can get Disney+ and Hulu, or all three services if you so choose. The upside of the bundle is that you save money if you were to get all three, but it also doesn't make much sense to go this route if you were just to get one of the services. Another thing that we've already seen with this is that if you have both Disney+ and Hulu, you can access all of that content while in Disney+. You don't have to go log into Hulu if you want to access shows there. While this is relatively minor in itself, it points to more potential partnerships down the road. This could lead to more price changes as well as content that is available on each streaming service.

            Kirsteen Mackay wrote an article for Value the Markets that looked at what the future of streaming services looked like. There were a lot of good takeaways from this article and have also aligned with things I've read in other articles. The first thing is that streaming services are continuing to gain traction over regular television, which means that there is more opportunity for advertising on these services. Companies like Netflix have already made several different subscription plans that keep the number of advertisements in mind, and other services have started to do the same. These different streaming services are also working on different franchises, exclusive to their platform. This is part of the competition to stand out and draw consumers to their respective platform. Some examples of popular franchises would be Netflix's Stranger Things, Disney+'s Star Wars, and Peacock's One Chicago series. These points relate to the main objective: longevity. Consumers are more likely to invest into something that will last a while. If they feel confident that they can get value out of a media product for a long time, they'll likely subscribe (and stay subscribed) to your streaming service. The last point that Kirsteen made was that streaming services are becoming increasingly interactive. There are now live streams (like live sporting events), commenting on different shows, and social media interaction. Most streaming services have a social media presence where consumers can interact with each other and platforms can advertise their product. 

             The streaming service industry is continuing to grow with new streaming services being launched and new features being added to the already existing platforms. Advertising and franchising will play a key role in the longevity of streaming services. Some platforms have started to partner with one another, offering bundles of subscriptions or merging the content that they offer. The main goal is for consumer retention, which will make or break this industry.

Franchising has become a focal point for streaming services
Source: Vintage Movie Posters

References:

• Fitzgerald, T. (2024). The Best Streaming Services For 2024. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/entertainment/article/best-streaming-services/
• Mackay, K. (2023). What is the Future of Streaming Services?. Value the Markets. https://www.valuethemarkets.com/analysis/what-is-the-future-of-streaming-services

• Star Wars: The Mandalorian. Vintage Movie Posters. (n.d.). https://www.vintagemovieposters.co.uk/shop/star-wars-the-mandalorian-poster/