Streaming Services Proliferation
https://www.fastcompany.com/90428525/why-the-streaming-wars-are-a-myth
There has been a proliferation of streaming service over the last couple of years, so much so that many people watch television almost exclusively online through either paid streaming services like Netflix and Hulu or through free service like how CW and CBS put their shows up for free the morning after. Based on what we have talked about in class the way one might contextualizes this as some kind of auction where the companies are competing for view attention. But this article points out how this isn’t really the case.
In class we look at auctions and markets under the assumption that people only want one of a particular category of product, ie. only one add slot, not all three, but in the real world this isnt always the case. Streaming services are not strictly better or worse than one another and having multiple has benefits. The clearest way to see this are original series. Disney+ has very limited selection, but their exclusive shows are extensions of some of the highest grossing franchises of our lifetimes, additionally Disney+ shows are given huge budgets and are therefore likely to be very high quality. Alternatively, netflix’s appeal is less based on exclusivity and more the broadness of their library. This all leads to a much more complicated situation than we looked at in class, where a consumer might buy more than one product, but their valuations of products are also based on eachother. If someone buys Disney+ they will be less likely to buy netflix because they only have so much time to spend watching television.