Give people easy access to what they want, at a reasonable
price, and they will gladly become your customer. It’s a mantra that has seen
the rise of many an internet streaming giant in the last ten or so years.
And now, we have two new contenders for our viewing dollars.
Officially launched on September 15, DC Universe ($7.99 per
month or $74.99 Year) is a bright shiny new streaming service that promises subscribers
a mix of "new original live-action and animated series," along with
"classic TV series and films, a curated selection of comic books, breaking
news, an expansive encyclopedia, and access to exclusive merchandise."
We all know how popular comic characters are these days, and
Warner Bros is jumping in with both feet in an attempt to capitalize on the DC
comic franchises.
Not simply a place to stream new TV shows and old episodes
of DC properties. DC Universe also features "a rotating, curated selection
of digital comic books" that you can read on your phone or tablet as well
as plenty of merchandise offerings you won’t find anywhere else.
The crown jewel of this new streaming service is a gritty
and dark series, Titans following
Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) and
a rag-tag group of soon-to-be superheroes including Starfire (Anna Diop), Raven
(Teagan Croft), and Beast Boy (Ryan Potter).
Their initial offerings sound tempting but it should be
noted that many of the DC properties and blockbuster movies like Wonder Woman,
Man of Steel, or Justice League are still under contract with other streaming
platforms. It’s unlikely they'll be popping up on DC Universe any time soon.
The same goes for the CW's Arrowverse. This undercuts the “exclusivity” angle
this service is aiming for and if their initial offerings are not enough to
hold consumer interest, it is likely they’ll see subscription numbers decline
quickly.
While DC Universe might have a huge mountain to climb to
become a streaming giant in its own right, another major player, Disney is also
developing their own exclusive streaming service. And unlike DC, they have
plenty of exclusivity to offer right off the bat. Hello Disney Vault… Yeah,
well played.
Disney Play - Will launch in 2019 (Estimated between $8 and
$14 a month.)
CEO Bob Iger revealed that about 500 movies from the Disney
library, along with about 7,000 episodes of Disney TV shows, will hit the
service.
The entire output of the studio, animation, live action at
Disney, including Pixar, Star Wars and all the Marvel films. Star Wars and
Marvel fans will have plenty to be excited about.
Jon Favreau is making a live-action Star Wars series that's
set three years after Return of the Jedi. MCU fans can look forward to
live-action Loki and Scarlet Witch shows, starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth
Olsen.
While Disney will launch with plenty of exclusivity, there
will be some initial co-mingling of Disney owned properties as contracts and
rights expire.
Netflix currently has a deal with Disney for the streaming
rights to Marvel and Star Wars movies until 2020. This means after Ant-Man and
the Wasp, there will be no more MCU movies on Netflix. Starting with Captain
Marvel, Disney Play will be the only place to stream the franchise.
Netflix also holds streaming rights to the Netflix original
series featuring Marvel characters: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron
Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher. This is unlikely to change.
In addition to the Netflix and Hulu offerings, there will be
some delay on Star Wars Movies reaching the Disney Play service. Television
rights to Episodes 1-6 of the movie franchise are currently held by Turner
Broadcasting, and do not expire until 2024
It should be noted that the Disney brand is considered
family friendly (though they own studios that produce adult oriented content)
so there won't be any R-rated movies on Disney Play platform
With all the exclusive content, these services seem like
true contenders to the three giants currently dominating the internet streaming
services. But I have to wonder if Warner Bros and Disney have considered the
implications of adding to the glut of streaming services already available to
consumers. What impact will this additional exclusivity mean in the digital
marketplace? Would it have been more prudent to team up with a current giant
and share in the profits?
Looking back at the impact of the rise of streaming media,
there is a very clear correlation between cost and ease of access that allowed
the current giants to get where they were.
In the early aught’s Cable reigned supreme offering upwards
of 400 channels to consumers for roughly $200 a month. Then between 2006 and
2008 consumers were introduced to streaming services like Amazon Video(06),
Netflix (07), Hulu (08).
Hulu, at $14.99 a
month, promised next-day views of most current cable Television season shows.
Netflix, at
$10.99 a month, promised full season binging at the click of a button as well
as a huge list of popular movies.
Amazon, (Included
with a Prime Membership) $8.99 monthly, hosted a seemingly unending library of
movies, television, and niche documentaries. 
Give people easy access to what they want, at a reasonable
price, and they will gladly become your customer.
These three giants changed the way we watched television. Their
offerings overlapped some, but each had its specific target and hit the
bulls-eye every time. Cost played a huge factor in consumers adopting the new
platforms. Combined at just under $35 a month, consumers could stream all three
for a fraction of the cable bill they were currently paying and switch to a
lighter, and easier to afford internet service bill.
The rise of these three streaming services had another unexpected
corollary effect. BitTorrent, commonly used to share files and known as a
marketplace for media piracy began to see a serious decline. According to Sandvine’snew Global Internet Phenomena report:
In 2011, file sharing was huge on fixed networks and tiny on mobile. In the Americas, for example, 52.01% of upstream traffic on fixed networks and 3.83% of all upstream mobile traffic was BitTorrent. In Europe, it was even more, with 59.68% of upstream on fixed and 17.03% on mobile. By 2015, those numbers had fallen significantly, with Americas being 26.83% on the upstream and Europe being 21.08% on just fixed networks.
During the rise of the three major Streaming services
(potentially unethical) file sharing via BitTorrent was on the decline. Pirate
streaming sites like TVShack.net, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and
Ninjavideo.net, found their end between 2010 and 2012 (Some still continue to
operate, though less trafficked today) as the three streaming giants beefed up
their video offerings while keeping cost low.
Give people easy access to what they want, at a reasonable
price, and they will gladly become your customer.
Today there are countless streaming outlets and smart TV’s
capable of connecting consumers with the shows they want, but the top three
remain so because they have grown and adapted with the times.
New players emerged during the rise of streaming, offering
specialty content, access to cable television channels without the high price
tag, and seasonal favorites only available through their connection.
Showtime
Price: $11 per month, or
$9 per month when purchased through certain services, such as Amazon Prime and
Hulu.
HBO Now
Price: $15 per month.
Starz
Price: $9 per month.
Sling TV
Price: Sling Orange costs $25 per month; Sling Blue costs
$25 per month. A combined package still costs $40 per month. Add-on packs cost
$5 to $10 extra per month.
While these offerings are not a complete list, they are at
the top of the list. They represent services that consumers use when they want exclusive
content, and cancel when they’ve finished watching. HBO for example, with its
hit series, Game of Thrones, sees its subscriber’s rise and decline yearly as
the season runs its course.
When you add up all the potential channels and offerings,
the resulting monthly cost begins to rise to the levels of Cable TV subscriptions.
A fact the big Cable companies are aware of and use to lure consumers back to
their annual contracts.
Along with the rising cost of accessing all this exclusive
content, the corollary effect we saw between 2011 and 2015, with the decline of
BitTorrent, has begun to reverse course in the last two years. The rising cost
of specialty streaming services with exclusive content are beginning to push
consumers to seek other methods of finding what they want without going over
budget.
Too many services, not giving people easy access to what
they want, while adding to consumer’s financial burden, will undoubtedly see
their customer base dwindle.