Will Economic Strain Make Households Cut Streaming Subscriptions?
Not so long ago, the streaming market appeared to be well served by relatively few competitors. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) had the lion's share of the market, followed by Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Hulu (then jointly controlled with other partners), and Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon Prime Video. There were other players, but those three were the big ones in the subscription video on demand (SVOD) space. Now, newcomers are everywhere, threatening to increase churn and raise the stakes in a market that just got a whole lot more competitive.
Disney's Disney+ and Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) Apple TV+ are new on the scene. AT&T's (NYSE: T) HBO Max and Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Peacock are on the way (the latter is in the midst of a "soft launch" as of this writing). Even with some households juggling three or more subscriptions, it has been reasonable for some time to expect the future of subscription streaming to feature more subscription churn.
And we thought all of this before the COVID-19 crisis. Since then, life has changed drastically. The market has plunged and millions are out of work. Streaming services are a luxury, not a necessity, so it's reasonable to wonder: Will tighter budgets mean fewer multi-subscription homes, fewer total subscribers, and less for all of the streaming services?
Source Fool.com
