There is even more bad news for pay television providers. Unlike 2017, subscribers signing up for cheaper online television bundles are starting to contract.
As media markets reach a consolidation fever pitch, three companies will emerge controlling nearly all content creation and distribution in the United States.
Television advertising sales in the U.S fell 8% to $61 billion in 2017 – the biggest slump in 20 years. Sales at cable networks dropped for the first time in a decade.
Walt Disney Co’s deal to buy film, television and international businesses from Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox is valued around $40 per share, or $75B.
Only days apart, the UK’s largest satellite broadcaster, Sky, and the US’s biggest cable company, Comcast, announced plans to expand their services online.
Netflix captured 80 million subscribers using studio content as a gateway to building customers. Did Netflix’s 50% originals initiative cross the line?