The speed of change
S03E12: Game of Streams (The speed of change)
Our Media Solution Consultant, Magnus Svensson, is sharing his reflections from the online streaming industry in this post. This is part of a monthly series so make sure to follow us here if you don’t want to miss an episode.
Working in the video streaming indsustry has never been more interesting and it feels like the wheels are spinning faster and faster. But maybe not as fast as you could think…
In every December episode of Game of Streams, I try to reflect on the year(s) that passed and look a bit in the crystal bowl for the coming year. Already two years ago I wrote about Disney announcing the acquisition of BAMTech and Fox to prepare for their own streaming service. It was just recently that Disney+ was launched in selected countries which shows that things take a bit longer time than you can think.
Also, at the end of 2017, I reflected and predicted that new players like Amazon would be interested in the Premier League TV rights and other big sports events. And about a month ago the first English Premier League game was distributed on Amazon Prime Video.
The streaming giants has now taken a big bite of the international sports rights. But it’s not cheap… according to Enders Analysis, the annual cost of the Premier League under its current contract would pay for 17 seasons of Netflix drama The Crown. But it might pay off. Amazon said the Premier League deal contributed to a “record number” of new subscribers signing up to Prime Video in the U.K.
At the end of 2018, I wrote about the need for consolidation and bundles, which is still very valid, and the Telia acquisition of Bonnier Broadcasting that just recently was completed. I also predicted that Apple would acquire Netflix but instead Apple launched its own service.
New Business models
So, what will happen when we move into a new decade? One of my predictions for the coming year is that we’ll see new (or revitalized) business models for streaming. With the huge amount of subscription services, there is a need to rethink the way you pay for streaming. We will probably still pay a subscription for a few selected services like Netflix, Disney and Apple and some will go the ad-funded route. But some services would benefit from new ideas.
First, I believe that transactional services will see a big increase. What if we could pay separately for selected movies and series instead of paying for a subscription? If the fee is moderate enough, this could be an option if you filled your “quota” of subscriptions. Or even more challenging, what if you could pay per minute of streaming. This would make an interesting option for the subscription overflow.
Premium Quality
We will see more premium quality services in 2020, both live and on-demand. When it comes to sports, we have the Olympics coming up in Japan and UEFA European Football Championship. This will again put low latency streaming on the agenda. Or enough latency streaming as I would like to call it.
Not all live streaming events needs sub-second latency, but the latency must improve from the previous global championships where delays of up to a minute were reported. With fairly easy measures it is possible to get down below 10 seconds by tuning the existing streaming pipeline. If you want to get into the 2–5 seconds range, you’ll need to look at technologies such as chunked encoding or alternative UDP based delivery methods.
Unless you’re running interactive services, game/quiz-shows or betting you will need to judge the cost of reaching lower latency and decide what is enough for you.
4K, HDR and high frame rate will also become important. The viewers will demand premium quality when they are watching their team playing as well as when they enjoy a good movie.
To watch out for the coming months…
It will be interesting to follow the local fight between the Swedish broadcasters and distributors. The Telia acquisition has just been finalized and we have already had our first blackout due to content discussions. The big competitor to Telia could be the company that acquires Viaplay from the NENT Group and both Tele2 and Telenor would be interesting potential buyers.
I still believe that local companies are fighting the wrong battle. It would instead be better for them all if they cooperated towards the real threat, the global streaming services.
Magnus Svensson is a Media Solution Consultant and partner at Eyevinn Technology. Eyevinn Technology is the leading independent consulting company specializing in video technology and media distribution.
Follow me on Twitter (@svensson00) and LinkedIn for regular updates and news.
