The advent of streaming services has fundamentally shaped the landscapes of the television, film, and music industries. Rather than buying packages on cable TV, watching their favorite shows in the living room, buying MP3 files of their favorite songs, and going to the theaters to watch a movie, a new generation of digital natives are consuming all the media they want via an interconnected system of smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. While industry commentators often remark that “Netflix killed cable” or “millenials killed cable”, massive profits remain unrealized.
Streaming TV is shaping up to be a potential winner-takes-all market, and entertainment and technology giants have all taken notice: Netflix may have brought streaming to the forefront of the public consciousness, but Apple, Amazon, Walt Disney, NBCUniversal, and WarnerMedia have all made massive investments in their own streaming services. HBO, a premium cable network and WarnerMedia Entertainment subsidiary, adapted to the rise by developing and adapting its own streaming platform, maintaining a high bar of premium content that allowed them to retain their loyal subscriber base even as other cable networks lost out.
As the United States market begins to mature and saturate, streaming services are taking the race to Asia in search of new growth opportunities. Japanese animated content has massive and rapidly growing markets outside of Japan, already crossing the $10 billion mark. Major players in the streaming industry are making moves toward securing a piece of this pie, with HBO Max recently sealing a huge deal for the exclusive US distribution rights for most of Studio Ghibli’s films by Hayao Miyazaki. Netflix is responding with significant investment of its own in Japan, creating new series such as “The Crown” and “Ultraman” and movies such as “Roma” while forming long-term partnerships with local studios to generate content for the next decade.
Netflix faces particularly stiff competition from Disney Plus, which will offer content from its massive franchises at half the price of Netflix. In an effort to differentiate itself, Netflix is extending its strategy of creating original exclusive content to Japanese anime as well - a move welcomed by Japanese studios who see streaming as the future of anime distribution.
Netflix currently leads the industry with 158 million subscribers, but it will be fascinating to see if they can successfully defend their position.
- Arjun Kumar
No comments:
Post a Comment