Streaming Services (2019)
Disney Plus has all the media talking talking about streaming and the market regarding it. Stories about Netflix and other services cracking down on password sharing and the shuffle of content are rampant. So I might as well write one too.
Netflix is now in a first mover disadvantage position. When Netflix started, password sharing was allowed because it created subscribers. It's how I came to the service. When Netflix was the biggest and best player on the block it could get most streaming rights and now the other content creators are cutting out the Netflix middleman. Netflix can see that Disney+ and other producer controlled streaming services mean that the content owners are no longer going to license to them. To their credit, they've been working on this issue for 3-5 years now, trying to transition to a content creation platform.
But the problem is they can't sustain growth that way. The content churn and loss of fan favorites that aren't driving new subscriptions is turning off the existing subscribers.
In my humble opinion, Hulu is not going to be here long. It was a beautiful experiment that will be the first casualty of Disney+. Disney is now the sole owner. What content is not Disney distributed is going to be returning to the producers streaming sites and Disney-controlled content will migrate to Disney+.
Netflix is at the middle of the end. They have the brand and subscription base to putter along for a while, but their original content isn't enough to draw new subs and longer term subscribers are going to start leaving it for other pastures.
Amazon Prime is setting itself up as the next Hulu and partnering with nearly every content producer except Disney. You can add HBO and Starz and others onto Prime, pay and watch in one place. As you can also buy* media there that is accessible even after most streaming rights move, it's my new choice for best streaming site. It's too bad the player is not great. It's improved recently though.
YouTube needs to get people subscribing to be profitable. However it's been free so long that that might kill it, especially with the new Terms of Conditions rolling out that presages a content purge. The December 10th changes look to remove popular but advertiser unfriendly content. It could also lead to ad-blocking users being banned. Together these could likely lead to a steep drop in user base. Without the free ad-viewing and if people don't subscribe, Google/Alphabet could close it or triple-down on corporate advertising accounts.
Specialist content like anime and web-humor (like Dropout/CollegeHumor) will probably keep going, but suffer from the coming YouTube changes. This is just speculation, but if YouTube goes hard on "no longer commercially viable," against sites getting revenue for advertiser unfriendly videos through Patreon or some other paid platform, these sites will lose their best advertising. I think their best move is shared platforms like Amazon Prime and VRV. Corporate sponsorship like Sony buying Funimation might help some of the largest ones.
*A 3 letter shorthand for "license non-exclusive streaming rights that can be taken away at any time"