The traditional TV market continues to evolve from what was once nation-based TV services to truly global media groups, controlling all stages of the content value chain. Such changes, typified by the Disney/Fox and Viacom/CBS mergers, have been brought about by competition from streaming giants Netflix and Amazon permanently changing once-established audience viewing dynamics.
The on-demand market is now moving into a period of fragmentation where producer and distributor brands go direct to the consumer (D2C), at the same time restricting the amount of content they license to third-party services.
At the same time, faced with a growing threat from global streaming platforms for audience eyeballs, Europe's giants are joining forces to try to keep the competition at bay.
The challenge facing every new entrant is to combine the right content with the right user experience from pricing and availability to relevant, personalised recommendations.
Equally, the industry should be braced for push back. The dominant internet players are already stretching people’s spending budgets and risking viewer fatigue, even before OTT goes into overdrive with heavyweight SVoD launches from Apple, TimeWarner, Disney and more.
Subscription overload strengthens the attraction of ad-supported on-demand business models as well as for platforms that are able to aggregate content - both premium and free, OTT and linear, niche and live - onboard one service in a seamless and integrated fashion. These are high stakes with billions of dollars on the table and not every player will survive. This report lays out the territory each must face.
