I saw a statistic that something like a third of the people who cut the cord do not go to any streaming—they just go cold turkey on the sports and/or entertainment.
Every consumer has their own preferences—and there will be no Goldilocks that works for any large bloc.
Streaming services are slowly learning this while they bleed cash.
They will catch on—and eventually their investors will figure it out as well.
You are correct. I think I read the only profitable streaming service is Netflix. That’s partly due to them owning content. They have made significant moves in recent years to buy/make content that they own. Compare that to the Blockbuster model, which was renting content. That’s one of the reasons I think leagues and conferences will end up streaming. They own the rights. Rent the tech and announcers, cut the middlemen - networks and cable companies. There’s profit to be made, but it won’t be the dollars involved in the unsustainable network deals that exist today, like ESPN losing their butts.
The thing to recognize is that in sports, content had a shelf life. That’s different than movies. Only a very few will care about the Temple-Rutgers game from this year next year or ten years from now. Many more people will enjoy classic movies from decades ago. The flip side to that is sports are meant to be seen live. There’s a premium people will pay for that. Movies on the other hand can wait. People won’t necessarily be driven to watch a movie at a specific time on a specific night of the week. The flexibility of choosing viewing times is one of the advantages of streaming movies. When all these things get weighed and correctly priced the next way of viewing will emerge.
I’m willing to bet that there will be another way of viewing sports and entertainment decades from now; for instance purchasing virtual seats at the sporting event, where you are completely immersed in the venue experience and it is bi-directional. The players on the field will see your virtual image in the stands and hear your cheers and boos. (I’m not advocating that. I’m pretty much tech adverse after spending my entire career in IT.) My favorite ways of watching sports remains going to games where I can interact with people. Next to that would be going to a bar. Virtual does nothing for me, but I could see it working for the generation glued to their XBox and watch other people play games on YouTube. Supposedly, that’s one of the most frequently viewed categories of videos on YouTube.