Long Indoor Stay, Time To Stream

April 12, 2020,

Will events that require massive crowd attendance become a thing of the past?

The threat of more viral outbreaks makes you wonder.

Could it be that the 2020 NCAA College Football season will be canceled?

It appears new viruses are appearing all of the time. Combine that with the growth of Mega Cities and the global community seems ripe for more massive outbreaks.

Huge crowds and Social Distancing are not compatible.

With the recent pandemic it seems like we should have been taking social distancing a little more seriously all along.

Just look at the growing world’s population and how we are all huddled together with these growing Mega Cities.

According to worldometers.info, “Population in the world is currently (2020) growing at a rate of around 1.05% per year. The current average population increase is estimated at 81 million people per year.

Annual growth rate reached its peak in the late 1960s, when it was at around 2%. The rate of increase has nearly halved since then, and will continue to decline in the coming years.

World population has doubled (100% increase) in 40 years from 1959 (3 billion) to 1999 (6 billion). It is now estimated that it will take another nearly 40 years to increase by another 50% to become 9 billion by 2037.

The latest world population projections indicate that world population will reach 10 billion persons in the year 2057.”

That is mind boggling. Eighty one million new people per year. Where will they all live?

Two questions that are prominent on the minds of entertainment entrepreneurs is what will they watch and where will they watch it from?

Streaming services appear to be one answer to those two questions.

grapplingstars.com, femcompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling.com articles, pexels.com- Ekaterina-Bolovtsova-photo

As reported by statista.com, “Revenue in the Video Streaming (SVoD) segment amounts to US$25,894m in 2020. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2024) of 4.1%, resulting in a market volume of US$30,410m by 2024. User penetration is 15.2% in 2020 and is expected to hit 16.9% by 2024.”

Sounds like a large increase. Sounds a little complex.

The Denver Post simplifies things for us. “Streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu account for 19% of television viewing in the United States. The percentage of time spent streaming has gone from 10% in a Nielsen study from March 2018 to 19% during the last three months of 2019. In a survey, 93% said they planned to either increase or maintain that number.”

Makes perfect sense in a Mega City time period.

The informative source grandviewresearch.com adds, “The global video streaming market size is expected to reach USD 184.3 billion by 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Globally, the rising demand for on-demand video and extensive growth of online video are key drivers of the market.”

Besides the behemoth Netflix, here are some of the streaming services that we have come to know and love and the list keeps growing.

grapplingstars.com, femcompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling.com articles, pexels.com- Ekaterina-Bolovtsova-photo

Hulu is a U.S.-based subscription video on demand service fully controlled and majority-owned by Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, a business segment of The Walt Disney Company, with NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast, as an equity stakeholder.

In March 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, giving it a 60% majority stake in Hulu. AT&T (which acquired Time Warner in 2018) sold back its roughly 10% stake the following month. Comcast, the only other shareholder, announced on May 14, 2019, that it had agreed to cede its control to Disney, and reached an agreement for Disney to purchase its 33% stake in the company as early as 2024.

Prime Video, also marketed as Amazon Prime Video, is an American Internet video on demand service that is developed, owned, and operated by Amazon.

It offers television shows and films for rent or purchase and Prime Video, a selection of Amazon Studios original content and licensed acquisitions included in the Amazon's Prime subscription.

In the UK, US, Germany, Sweden, and Austria, access to Prime Video is also available through a video-only membership, which does not require a full Prime subscription.

In France and Italy, Rent or Buy and Prime Video are not available on the Amazon website and Prime Video content is only accessible through a dedicated website. In some countries Prime Video additionally offers Amazon Channels, which allows viewers to subscribe to other suppliers' content, including HBO in the United States.

Variety certainly is the spice of life.

Sling Television, commonly known as Sling TV, is an American over-the-top internet television service owned by Dish Network and legally operated by Sling TV LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dish Network.

Unveiled on January 5, 2015, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor aims to complement subscription video on demand services for cord cutters, offering a selection of major cable channels and OTT-originated services that can be streamed through smart TVs, digital media players and apps.

The service is available in the United States and Puerto Rico as of 2015.

Crackle is a US-based OTT (Over The Top) video streaming platform that is a joint venture between Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television.

Its library consists of original content as well as programming acquired from other companies. The service is available in 21 countries on connected devices including mobile, tablets, smart TVs, desktop, and gaming consoles. Crackle is also available as in-flight entertainment and in selected hotel chains.

The next entry is very intriguing.

HBO Go is a TV Everywhere service offered by the American premium cable network HBO.

It allows HBO subscribers to stream video on demand selections of HBO content, including current and past series, films, specials, and sporting events, through either the HBO website, or apps on mobile devices, video game consoles, and digital media players. The service first launched on February 18, 2010.

The world of streaming is a new, exciting and expanding place.

As much as we may not like it to be, the era of sheltering in on Government demand may be the new normal as one virus after another invades a corner of the world that secures a major airport.

In the era of Mega Cities, we appear to be a world without real borders with easy access to spread the next contagion.

One nice distraction?