Saturday, June 8, 2019

Hulu and YouTube TV Might be Among Biggest Streaming Winners

Hulu and YouTube are among the bigger winners in streaming video by 2022, Business Insider predicts. Sling TV and Playstation Vue are among the big losers. We might note that both Hulu and YouTube TV are anchored by their “live TV” (linear)  content.

We sometimes forget that the legacy subscription TV business (cable, telco, satellite TV) is itself an amalgam of “live” and “pre-recorded” content. The paramount examples of “live” content being “sports and news;” the best example of pre-recorded content being movie services.

In the streaming era we will see lots of niches recreated out of legacy content formats, including services that emphasize pre-recorded content; some that emphasize “live content” (sports networks, news) and many that recreate in a streaming format today’s mix of channels.

The “live streaming” segment of the market will include the specialized sports and news venues, plus what we tend to call “skinny bundles” of channels that resemble subscription TV but offer fewer channels.

Some services, including Netflix, might continue to thrive using the pre-recorded content model. Sling TV might be the original skinny bundle supplier. But there is lots of new competition coming in that segment from Hulu, DirecTV Now, YouTube TV and others.

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