The Fate of Streaming Services After the Pandemic

“My boss thinks I’m lazy. How do I tell him I’m just on the last episode of Stranger things?”

You’re back to work. Corona is long gone, and you’re on your office desk with your laptop on, just like the good ol’ days. What should be on your screen is an excel sheet, but instead, there’s a message where an episode is paused, asking, “Are You Still Watching?”

Of course, you are. The corona is over, but that doesn’t mean the habits you picked up are as well! This change didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took us an entire pandemic to have our lifestyle fully evolve.

This includes our sleeping patterns, social habits, and streaming obsessions. However, the question is: as COVID-19’s intensity plummets into a substantial decrease, what can you expect now?

Want to see how the contemporary streaming empire is holding up right now? Who’s leading the pack, and who’s falling behind? Say no more; I got you!

A Glimpse at the Covid-19 After Effects

It seems like the void that y'all have been trying to fill won’t be filled any time soon because the statistics at Forbes speak a different language. Not only can you expect TV and video consumption to be boosted in the same way, but expect online content streaming to grow over offline as well.

Also, movie theaters would become a preference of just a few compared to the streaming services. In fact, the balance could lean more toward online streaming even in closed social circles.

It is true that today, we have different comfort zones than we had back in the day. The VOD lifestyle has gotten to us, and we can’t move on.

What’s the Latest Streaming Trend in 2022?

As per the Screen Engine/ASI General Entertainment & Technology tracker, of the 3,000 U.S. entertainment consumers interviewed, 32% planned to cancel, in the first half of 2021, at least one of their streaming services. The excuses are the need to save money, a specific show leaving the streaming platform, or the desire to finish their desired show.

Another study by the UTA (The United Talent Agency) illustrated the post-pandemic plans of 1000 US consumers about their media consumption. The results showed that 67% of the streaming consumers aged 18–54 planned to give more time to streaming media than they did during the pandemic.

Particularly in the US, more than 95 million households own, at minimum, one streaming subscription. In fact, as the pandemic ended, subscribers to two to more than five media channels have cut down to just one, seeing the need for it lessen. Now that you can go outside, you know you need to cut some streaming services. So which one would it be for you?

Consider the high number of streaming services that are fighting with one another to be the best. What can we say? There are a lot of options, and we need to choose the one that is of the highest quality and the lowest cost among all of them!

Therefore, when we choose one, the other services will suffer as a result. Do you get what I'm trying to say? While the other 71% didn’t have any plans to do so. Rather, they plan to spend even more on different streaming platforms now.

From the Streamers' POV

When Bruno Mars said, “easy come, easy go, that’s just how you live,” the streamers felt it.

So, that's the way things turn out to be. In practice, though, subscribers might be lost in exactly this manner. Because of this, I simply can't rely on the streamer standing, which is why I decided to disclose the ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), which is a more effective indicator for counting the numbers.

We say that because not every streamer is transparent like Netflix, nor do the subscribers have the attention span to stay with one streaming service for long. I mean, of course, when you find love in several flavors, why would you want to taste just one? But for your sake, we’ve also made a summarized table for streamer standing; check it out!

A Subscriber Competition Amid the Streamers

What if something you’ve wanted to watch has already been checked off your watchlist? Would you dent your bank account with a subscription that’s no longer wanted? I’ll let you ponder on it for a while. Meanwhile, here’s a streamer standing that displays the winner-ups; see for yourself!

• YouTube: The world’s most popular video streaming service-best for DVR and overall experience, with over 2.6 billion total monthly active users (Statista 2022).
• Netflix: Netflix is the biggest paid-for global video streaming service, with 220 million subscribers, offering the most extensive library of content all over the world.
• Prime Video: Amazon Prime is the third-most subscribed streaming service, predicted to grow more in 2025 from currently having over 200 million subscribers.
• Disney+: With 90 years of original content, it snags adults and kids of all generations under its wing, accounting for over 137.7 million subscribers worldwide.
• HBO Max: With 76.8 million global subscribers, HBO Max is a contemporary streamer that showcases HBO content made up of the hottest TV shows and films from Warner Media.
• Hulu: Hulu has 45.6 million subscribers loving the best content blend, including live US television series and a plethora of the best original content to ever exist.
• Hotstar: Acquired by Disney in 2020, Hotstar is the most popular video streaming service in India, with over 50 million paid subscribers under its spell.
• Apple TV+: Apple has 25 million paid users currently. Expected to boom in the days to come, it might give YouTube a run for its money due to its most sought-after original content.

According to Streamints.com and their Twitter handle, streaming services and their activity have been consistently high that even cinema goers are pivoting more towards online streaming.

Market Share of Streaming Services

For pictorial lovers, here’s a visual representation courtesy of Business of Apps, which shows exactly how each streaming platform has performed throughout 2021 and all the way to the 1st quarter of 2022!

Let the ARPU Battle Begin

Netflix is being as transparent as possible. Whether it does so to show off or have investors be interested in it, the streaming platform knows its charms. Letting its global ARPU be known to be a whopping $14.91 in Q1. It literally knows no bounds—be it in terms of library content and quality or being a boaster.

Apple, suspiciously, keeps its numbers under wraps. Could it be to hide its low performance, or do the people at Apple Inc. just want to stay low-key? One thing’s for sure, neither is the case with Amazon Prime, which too has obscured its numbers from public knowledge. I could only deduce that it's because of the fact that they aren’t exclusively a VOD service.

Other streaming services with ARPUs according to Dan Rayburn are:

• Disney+ in Q1 2022: $4.30 global ARPU and $6.32 domestic ARPU (subscription)
• Hulu in Q1 2022: $12.77 SVOD ARPU  (subscription and advertising)
• HBO Max in A1 2022: $11.24 domestic ARPU (subscription and advertising)

A Streaming Secret No One Talks About

A Kantar report I happened to come across disclosed the underlying activities that wound these streamers, notably Netflix (27.4%), Disney+ (26.3%), and lastly, Hulu (23.1%). These activities include password sharing, app-hopping, taking advantage of free trials, and canceling them at the last minute to avoid having to pay a dime.

The New Normal - Explained

Who would want to leave the comfort of their house, travel all the way to a theater, and have someone else watch you watch a film? Above all, who has the patience to even wait for their favorite movie to be released any longer?

At least I don’t. And deep down, I know you think the same. And you know what, even the UTA study agrees with us, saying that COVID-19 has left streaming consumers wanting more, be it in terms of platforms, perspectives, or genres—that too, chop chop!

Streaming enthusiasts are hungry for something new every day, and satisfying their appetite is a tricky art to master. However, to sustain the fish in their streaming sea, entertainment creators, producers, and streamers must be unique and extensive in their content catalogs.

In fact, that might just be the catalyst to winning the race in the concentrated entertainment market today.

Because, as you’ve deciphered from the article, these people aren’t ready to give up their streaming addictions any time soon but are always looking for more.

The Grass is Greener on the Other Side

Or is it? While it's true that our choices have expanded with higher quality and less costly streaming services, there’s a drawback too.

And it’s called "streaming addiction.” Are you unable to eat without YouTube on? Do you need to be watching “Friends” whilst working? Are you, too, no longer able to use the loo without some “Resident Evil” action?

Or is it just me? The real question is: have we become enslaved people in these modern technological times, and will we ever go back to maintaining human interaction again? Well, to me, it doesn’t look like it-not so soon anyway.

Final Thoughts

With COVID now reaching its conclusion, it seems like the honeymoon period is over for the streamers. Back to the tough grind-for both of us. P.s. Stop slacking at work!