By: Ajay V.
Edited by: Jeremy H.
The pandemic has been a difficult time for many people around the world. It has undoubtedly changed hundreds of industries, for better or worse. One of these industries was the streaming industry. Since the pandemic started, lockdowns and anti-virus precautions forced millions of people who would be traveling outside (and maybe visit the movies) into their homes. With not many entertainment options to do at home, many people started to look to the internet to satisfy their daily entertainment wants. In particular, many people went to streaming services. In addition to that, with the fact that movie production companies could not release movies in theaters, an explosion in streaming subscriptions occurred. This also sparked a multi-corporation streaming war between the best on-demand streaming services. Companies like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video grappled against each other for the most subscribers. Now that the pandemic is slowly coming to a conclusion and vaccination rates start to increase, it’s time to look at the battlefield of the streaming war, how the rise of on-demand streaming will affect the movie industry and the question on everyone’s mind: who won?
The Leaderboard
To assess the success of different streaming services we are going to look at two vital numbers. The number of subscribers and the average revenue per user or ARPU for short.
1. Netflix
Subscribers: 209 million
ARPU: Netflix reports their ARPU per region, the regions are below.
Canada and US: $14.40
Europe, Middle East, and Africa: $11.61
Latin America: $7.45
Asia, Pacific: $9.72
Overview: Netflix is the clear winner in this race. Its subscriber counts dwarf the other services, and its ARPU is one of the highest in the market. It has dominated the market ever since it was founded in 1997. The company, however, does have an edge compared with the other streaming services: Netflix was created years before its competitors, giving it a head start in the race. However, Netflix's growth seems to be much slower than the other services. Netflix only added 6 million new subscribers in 2020, but it's still considered the most popular streaming service today.
2. HBO and HBO Max
Subscribers: 67.5 million
ARPU: $11.90
Overview: HBO and HBO Max are two different subscription plans, but their parent company, WarnerMedia, usually clumps the two together. HBO has been a long-running streaming service, but HBO Max is quite recent and was launched in May of 2020 during the pandemic. Since then, AT&T (the parent company of WarnerMedia) has considered the launch of HBO Max a success. Though its subscriber count is only 67.5 million and is dwarfed compared to fellow competitor Disney+, its ARPU is also considered high in the market, which means that it brings in more revenue than Disney+ despite being less popular. HBO and HBO Max grew by 3.5 million subscribers which is lower than other services even though it went above what analysts predicted.
3. Hulu
Subscribers:
SVOD only: 37.8 million
Live TV: 3.8 million
ARPU:
SVOD only: $12.08
Live TV + SVOD: $81.83
Overview: Hulu is a streaming service that is currently controlled by the Walt Disney company. Unlike its competitors, it offers two different types of memberships. You can get the SVOD (Subscription Video-on-demand) only plan, which is similar to what other services offer, or you could get SVOD plus Live TV which costs a lot more. Hulu has around 37.8 million SVOD subscribers and 3.8 million Live TV subscribers totaling 41.6 million. Though that’s a lot less compared to Disney+, which is 4th on this list, Hulu's ARPU is 4 times Disney+'s ARPU making it a clear winner.
4. Disney+
Subscribers: 103 million
ARPU: $3.99
Overview: Disney+ launched in 2019, and since then has experienced rapid growth. For a recent streaming service like Disney+, adding 103 million subscribers in just under two years is an amazing feat. Despite the success, however, Disney+ growth has started to slow down, and added 8 million subscribers since February, missing their subscriber goal by 6 million. The ARPU for Disney+ is also really low compared to other services, though the company says that this is because they also included Disney+ Hotstar numbers with their traditional Disney+ numbers. Disney+ Hotstar is another streaming service that was recently launched in India and has a low ARPU compared with normal Disney+. Also, these numbers as well as Hulu’s numbers might be slightly outdated since they were released in April.
5. Prime Video
Subscribers: About 200 million
ARPU: Unknown
Overview: Prime Video is a streaming service launched by Amazon.com Inc in 2006 for Amazon Prime customers. Amazon, unfortunately, does not release the number of prime customers it has but estimates of the subscriber count point to somewhere around 200 million. However, Amazon Prime subscribers also have access to a plethora of other services like discounts on amazon.com and free music playlists. That means only some customers use Prime Video and most of them bought the subscription for multiple reasons making it hard to assess where Prime Video is actually on the leaderboard. Also, Amazon doesn’t report ARPU either making it even harder. So take the 5th place for granted. However, it is important to note that Amazon Prime is a rapidly growing subscription and has added over 100 million subscribers during the pandemic.
These 5 streaming services are currently the biggest and most successful in the world and dominate the market, but they aren’t the only ones. Other streaming services like ViacomCBS’ Paramount+ and NBCUniversal’s Peacock are constantly growing and could become major streaming services in the future.
The Future of Television
Despite the pandemic bolstering the streaming market to sky-high proportions, vaccination and travel have increased as the pandemic ends. This begs the question, what will be the future of online streaming after the pandemic. Though some may prefer the classic theater, the majority of people prefer to watch movies at home. The comfort of your dwelling plus the latest movies online makes streaming an ideal choice. Not only that, but theater tickets cost a lot of money. The average ticket cost an average of $9.16 in 2019. For streaming services, the subscription cost is around $5 to $15, with a few services going up to $35. Paying even the high price of 35 dollars for a streaming service with hundreds of movies you can watch on-demand in your home is a lot better than going to the movies for $9.16 only for one movie. This makes consumers a lot more likely to buy a streaming service. That coupled with the flexibility of the service is sure to make streaming still popular for consumers. It is clear that after the streaming battle, online streaming is not going to disappear and will get better and better.
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