Long gone are the days when we’d venture to the local Blockbuster to rent DVDs or tapes. The downfall of the once mammoth movie rental empire? The emergence of video-on-demand online streaming services. COVID-19 has only further increased the popularity of these platforms, with people around the globe flocking to the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ for entertainment during the pandemic. As a result, streaming services have seen their subscriber bases soar. The industry's behemoths are fighting it out for every dollar – but who is winning the battle of the streaming giants? Read on to find out.
The new kid on the block, discovery+ only arrived in America in January 2021, yet reportedly boasts 18 million subscribers around the world already. It debuted in India back in 2020 and since its launch Stateside is now available in select US territories as well as a range of European countries, with plans to roll out further across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The platform has a massive archive of 55,000 TV shows from Discovery Inc.’s portfolio of 14 television networks, including the Food Network, TLC, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.
Earlier this year, it was announced that discovery+ was set to merge with WarnerMedia, the entertainment company behind Warner Bros., DC Comics, CNN, and fellow streaming service HBO Max. This is a huge potential money-spinner for discovery+, which will surely see its already impressive archive of TV content grow from the hotly anticipated team-up. The deal is set to close in 2022, and the new company will go by the moniker Warner Bros. Discovery.
Launched in 2019, it’s estimated by a recent Statista report that Apple TV+ has about 40 million subscribers – though Apple hasn't revealed its official figures. It's unclear how many of these subscribers are actually paying for content though; currently, a year-long membership comes free with selected Apple products. The service is available in more than 100 countries around the world and, compared to the competition, it has a modest content catalogue, with only a few dozen titles currently available.
Most of the content available to stream on Apple TV+ is original, with flagship shows including comedy series Ted Lasso, which has won seven Emmy Awards, and The Morning Show, which is helmed by Hollywood icons Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. The platform is eager to expand its content library, however. It recently snapped up the Sundance Film Festival hit CODA for a record $25 million (£18.5m). The previous record holder was competitor Hulu, who acquired Sundance’s Palm Springs for $22 million (£16.3m) in 2020.
Originally created in 2014 as CBS All Access, the streaming service was rebranded as Paramount+ and relaunched in March this year, following a merger of media companies CBS and Viacom. It’s estimated that ViacomCBS has 42 million subscribers across its various streaming platforms, though the company states that most of those subscriptions are from Paramount+. The service is currently available in America, Australia, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East (as a paid-for TV channel), and the Nordic countries of Europe.
Paramount+ has an impressive array of content – sourced from channels such as CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, MTV, VH1, and Showtime, as well as the Paramount Pictures library – offers something for everyone. It debuted a reboot of the popular Nickelodeon kids' show iCarly earlier this year to much fanfare. Its extensive library of children's entertainment, which includes favourites like Peppa Pig, SpongeBob SquarePants, and PAW Patrol, is set to compete with rival Disney+.
Launched in 2007, Hulu boasts 42.8 million paying subscribers. It's available in the US, Puerto Rico, and Japan. In 2020, it raked in revenues of $4.4 billion (£3.26bn) according to Disney. The streaming service is owned by Disney and Comcast, who have a 67% stake and 33% stake respectively. However, a deal struck by the two companies will see Disney have 100% ownership of Hulu by 2024.
Hulu has not officially stated the size of its content library, though it’s estimated it boasts 43,000 episodes of television shows and over 2,500 films. Its flagship show, The Handmaid's Tale, based on the bestselling book of the same name by Margaret Atwood, has won an impressive 15 Emmy Awards since its 2017 debut.
Launched in May 2020 in American and Latin American, HBO Max currently boasts 67.5 million subscribers. It's also set to launch in select European countries later this year. Currently, the streaming service has about 13,000 hours of content. This includes original content, Warner Brothers classic movies, and films from the DC Comics universe. As previously mentioned, parent company WarnerMedia is set to merge with Discovery Inc. in 2022 in a hotly anticipated team-up. The deal could see HBO Max's entertainment catalogue soar.
Using a shrewd business plan, the streaming service has grown its customer base and kept up with competition from streaming giants including Netflix. Subscribers can reap the benefits of Same Day Premieres, which allows them to watch Warner Bros. film releases via the platform on the same day they are released in theatres, at no extra cost. Blockbuster films such as Wonder Woman 1984, Mortal Kombat, and Godzilla vs. Kong have been included in the savvy strategy.
Not one to miss a money-making opportunity, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos launched Amazon Prime Video worldwide in 2014, except in mainland China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. To date, the platform boasts 107 million subscribers. In 2020, Amazon's subscription services raked in a cool $25 billion (£18.5bn), although this figure includes Amazon Prime Delivery memberships. The standard subscription includes approximately 24,000 movies and 2,100 TV shows. Customers also have the option to rent or buy additional content and channels.
Bezos attempted to buy fellow streaming giant Netflix back in 1998 for approximately $16 million (£11.9m), although his offer was declined. Today, Amazon is going all-out to beat its biggest rival, as well as other streaming services. In May, it paid a whopping $8.5 billion (£6.3bn) for MGM, the film studio behind the James Bond and Rocky franchises; competitors Apple and Comcast were also keen to purchase it but Amazon's multibillion cheque ultimately won the bidding war. Additionally, Amazon Prime Video will debut its Lord of the Rings series next year, which cost more than $1 billion (£741m). The rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's works alone cost $250 million (£185m).
Disney+ may have only launched in the US in November 2019 and begun its global rollout in March 2020, but it already has more than 116 million subscribers. It has about 7,000 TV episodes and 500 films in its content catalogue, which includes Walt Disney Studio's animated classics and Pixar films, making it a popular choice for parents with young children. Major purchases also mean the platform can stream the hugely popular likes of the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, as well as create original content around those brands. It also has the rights to stream content from National Geographic as well as from several major film studios, including 20th Century Studios and Hollywood Studios.
During the pandemic, Disney cleverly utilised the platform to recoup box office losses with the launch of Disney+ Premier Access. Subscribers pay a one-time price to obtain early access to a movie still in cinemas. This strategy made blockbuster films like Mulan, Jungle Cruise, Black Widow, and Cruella available to stream at home. It's also very busy making new series around the franchises it owns. Loki premiered on 9 June to over 890,000 viewers, the highest US opening-day audience for any Marvel Disney+ show, according to Samba TV. Other Marvel original shows, such as WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Solider, also pulled in more than a million viewers during their opening weekends on the platform.
Dubbed the Netflix of China, iQIYI is a Chinese video-on-demand service that had 119 million subscribers in 2020, according to Visual Capitalist. It was founded in 2010 by Baidu, the company that created China’s largest online search engine, with assistance from equity partners. At the end of the second quarter of 2021, it reported revenues of $1.2 billion (£890m).
iQIYI states that it has an extensive entertainment library of both original and third-party content. According to the streaming service, users spend an average of 8.4 billion hours per month watching content on the platform. In 2017, it teamed up with streaming giant Netflix, which doesn't have a presence in China due to restrictions, in a deal that meant some of Netflix's original content would be available to stream on iQIYI.
Launched in 2011, Tencent Video is China’s largest streaming service, boasting 120 million subscribers at the end of 2020 according to Venture Capitalist. Tencent Video was one of eight Chinese apps in the top 30 mobile apps with the highest revenue in the App Store and Google Play Stores in September 2017. Tencent Video scored among the top 15 applications with the highest global consolidated monthly income in October 2017.
The platform features a wide range of content, including Chinese animation, TV series, soap operas, and movies. Original content is said to account for 65% of its content, and it also offers live-streaming programming. It exclusively aired the 74th Golden Globe Awards live in 2017. In 2018, Tencent introduced WeTV, a version of the company that is available outside of mainland China, as well as in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India.
The early bird catches the worm, as the saying goes, and Netflix, which started out as a DVD rental and sales mail order firm in 1997, was one of the first to venture into streaming in 2007. It's now the world's largest and most successful streaming service and is available worldwide, with the exception of mainland China (due to local restrictions), Syria, North Korea, and Crimea (due to US sanctions). It had only 1,000 titles when it first launched as an online platform but now has over 15,000. Since it began producing original material in 2013, it has created upwards of 1,500 titles. It boasts over 209 million subscribers, and in 2020 reported revenues of $25 billion (£18.5bn).
Its most-watched licenced show to date is The Office, with over 57 billion minutes of the comedy devoured by viewers. Its original documentary series Tiger King had 34 million viewers within the first 10 days of premiering in 2020. Netflix has received over 204 awards for its original content, and is set to expand its self-made content library even further. Most recently, the streaming giant bought the rights to British author Roald Dahl’s entire catalogue for a record breaking $700 million (£516m), giving it the opportunity to produce content based around beloved classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda.
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