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This week we discuss the new ESPN direct-to-consumer app, which was announced this week. Colin thinks that at $30 per month it’s too expensive relative to other streaming services, yet given the breadth of content and features, I think the price seems fair or maybe even low.
A big question is how wide the adoption will be as most hardcore sports fans still have a pay-TV subscription. That...
Disney’s fiscal Q4 results confirmed a broader industry trend that ad-supported subscribers are driving growth for streaming services. Disney’s CEO Bob Iger said 60% of new DTC subscribers are on the ad tier, with 37% and 30% of US and international subscribers, respectively, now on the ad tier.
Related, Netflix said earlier this week that 70 million monthly users are reached via its ad-...
Viewers’ shifting consumption from linear TV to streaming is well-documented, but multibillion-dollar write downs in Q2 ’24 at Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount helped quantify just how costly the shift has been to big media companies.
In today’s podcast we discuss the write downs and the broader industry context. When Discovery acquired WarnerMedia, it made a bet-the-company wager on the...
Disney reported its fiscal second quarter results this week, showing continued direct-to-consumer profitability, as well as modest subscriber gains for both Disney+ and Hulu. Given last year’s second half performance, it’s likely Disney will achieve DTC profitability for the full 2025 fiscal year, a first.
On the earnings call, Disney also noted that next week the branding and pricing for “...
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Netflix revealed at its Upfront this week that it now has 40 million monthly active users on its lower-priced ad-supported tier. It’s not clear how monthly active users and subscribers relate to each other. But I think it’s probably fair to assume that closer to around 10% of Netflix’s 270 million global subscribers are now ad-tier subscribers (Colin and I will clarify this further...
Earlier this week the WSJ reported that Walmart is seeking to acquire VIZIO for over $2 billion. Colin and I discuss the likely strategic rationale behind the deal. We both like the benefits to both companies with grabbing a bigger share of CTV ad spending a big upside.
Meanwhile, the Super Bowl scored a record 123.4 viewers across all platforms according to Paramount. The company also said...
LRG estimates that YouTube TV added 600K subscribers in Q3 ’23, bringing it to a total of 6.5 million subscribers. YouTube TV’s growth is by far the strongest of all pay-TV providers, double the growth of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo, with all traditional providers losing subscribers in Q3.
On this week’s podcast we discuss what’s behind YouTube TV’s growth, and also how sports TV continues to be...
First up on Inside the Stream this week Colin and I discuss the latest data from Nielsen’s The Gauge report. While it said that “linear TV” viewing fell below 50% for the first time, we explain how a more accurate headline would probably be that broadcast and cable TV viewing fell below 50%. Viewership is following along with pay-TV adoption, which we also discuss fell further in Q2 ’23....
In this week’s podcast we discuss the overlapping “doom loops” that are crushing the TV industry. These were first articulated by MoffettNathanson, and built upon by Colin. The doom loops include 1) TV networks shifting investment/focus from linear TV to streaming, in turn driving more cord-cutting, 2) Fewer remaining pay-TV subscribers available to shoulder the cost of sports TV networks, in...
eMarketer’s latest data reveals that in 2024, 20 million more viewers will consume live sports on streaming than on pay-TV. With a number of marquee games shifting to streaming ahead (notably NBA to Amazon and Peacock), streaming is poised for more gains. eMarketer forecasts that in 2027 over 127 million viewers will consume live sports on streaming vs. just 75 million for pay-TV.
As we...