European broadcasters and content providers are implementing three strategies in the online content delivery market to stave off competition from Disney, Amazon and Netflix.
During the second quarter, DirecTV’s traditional satellite service lost 778,000 subscribers and its streaming service DirecTV Now lost 168,000 accounts.
Beyond ballooning content and acquisition costs, fueled by costly debt, there are five additional obstacles that will challenge Netflix’s streaming dominance.
Netflix lost subscribers in the United States for the first time in nearly a decade. The second quarter was also the worst quarter in terms of international additions that Netflix has posted in four years.
Netflix expanded its global footprint with a ten-year lease at the U.K’s Shepperton Studios. The lease grants Netflix exclusive access to a majority of Shepperton including 14 sound stages.
Netflix solidified its position in Hollywood by recently taking the empty seat at the Motion Picture Association of America vacated when Disney acquired Fox.
Starting in 2020, films released by Lionsgate will be distributed on the Hulu streaming service, and FX, the basic-cable channel now owned by Disney after the takeover of Fox.
Disney, Amazon Prime, and Netflix have pivoted to India, the world’s second largest market, after plans to launch and sustain services in the world’s most populous nation hit the Great Wall of China.
Recently, anonymous sources have reported to multiple news outlets about the difficulty Hollywood will face in attempting to take back its content from Netflix.
Netflix surpassed Sky in the UK in terms of subscribers for the first time in 2019. The victory makes Netflix the most widely subscribed to media platform in the U.K.
The timing of the anonymous leak that CBS was prepared to pay Lionsgate $5 billion for Starz, raises serious questions about possible market manipulation.