What Is The Streaming War All About?

 

Media companies have launched direct-to-consumer video services to compete with Netflix. All of them have been following category leader Netflix with global expansion and investing billions of dollars in content.

To be competitive, industry analysts expect an increase in mergers, such as Discovery and Time Warner or partnerships, such as the recently announced SkyShowtime between ComcastCMCSA and ViacomCBS.

Television’s “streaming wars”—a term that’s been used for nearly a decade to characterize competition in the music and entertainment industries—will reach a critical juncture in the next few months. Apple TV+ and Disney+ will debut. NBCUniversal’s Peacock and HBO Max will likely announce monthly price points. Netflix will continue to premiere new projects from creative heavyweights like Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes.

The streaming wars are similar to media battles of the past, as legacy companies fight for audience popularity, industry predominance, and to keep the threat of the disruptive interloper at-bay. But this time, traditional media companies like Comcast are competing with tech giants like Amazon for mass audiences.

TikTok and SoundCloud have ventured into a crowded market that rival Spotify abandoned after less than a year. What will the streaming wars mean for advertisers, marketers, distributors, and creators?

 

Established streaming industry leaders like Netflix and Amazon are facing more competition than ever. Now legacy entertainment giants are in the game with their own subscription services, like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle, while Apple TV Plus attacks around the edges. Meanwhile, the rise of ad-supported free platforms like Roku Channel and Pluto TV has attracted enough attention that Plex, YouTube, and Amazon’s Freevee are trying to get a chunk of the action too.