Streaming video trends images.
The streaming video industry continues to grow and evolve. What are today’s major video streaming industry trends – and what will the industry look like in 12 months? There is much that will remain the same, even as significant changes occur.
Key Takeaways
Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and Hulu will continue to dominate the SVOD market
Consumers will suffer from subscription burnout and drop some of their monthly streaming subscriptions
AVOD services will continue to gain market share, and SVOD services will push their new ad-supported tiers
OTT providers will continue to turn to reboots and comic books for new content
New technologies will enable higher-resolution video with fewer video quality issues
The Video Streaming Market is Growing
Over-the-top (OTT) streaming video is bigger than ever and still growing. According to Deloitte, 84% of U.S. consumers subscribe to at least one paid SVOD streaming service, with the average household having four subscriptions. Nielsen reports that more people watch streaming video services than cable or broadcast television.
Viewership of streaming, cable, and broadcast television in November 2022.
Overall, the streaming video market should continue to realize strong growth. According to Precedence Research’s Video Streaming Market Size, Trends, and Growth Report 2030, the global streaming video market is predicted to grow from $375.1 billion in 2021 to $1,721.4 billion in 2030. That’s a CAGR of over 18%.
Streaming video market size, 2021-2030.
6 Video Streaming Industry Trends Driving Market Growth
The video streaming industry is vibrant and constantly changing. Today’s OTT market looks nothing like just five years ago – there are numerous new services, new ways to make money, and new programming trends. The only thing constant about the video streaming industry is change, as reflected in the following big trends for 2023.
1. The Big Five Will Continue to Dominate the SVOD Market
The subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market is currently dominated by five major players:
Netflix (223 million paid subscribers)
Disney+ (164 million paid subscribers)
Amazon Prime Video (117 million paid subscribers)
HBO Max (48 million paid subscribers)
Hulu (47 million paid subscribers)
Beyond the Big Five, the field spreads out fairly quickly. Paramount+ is the strongest competitor, with around 46 million subscribers worldwide. Apple TV+, in contrast, has been slow to grow and only has an estimated 20 million subscribers. Peacock has similar numbers and similar slow growth, with only 18 million paid subscribers. None of these services, with the possible exception of Paramount+ (and its Star Trek franchise), has the compelling original content to break into the Big Five.
2. Consumers Will Suffer from Subscription Burnout
As popular as SVOD services have been, consumers are suffering from subscription burnout. Subscription prices keep increasing and viewers have to maintain multiple subscriptions to keep up with all the quality original content being produced.
In today’s touch economy, it’s untenable to subscribe to every service out there, so consumers are winnowing down their subscription portfolio. The result is that SVOD services are experiencing significant churn, and some are losing large numbers of subscribers. While the market remains strong, this trend could negatively impact some individual SVOD services.
3. AVOD and FAST Services Will Continue to Gain Ground
As SVOD services lose subscribers, advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) services gain viewers. Consumers may not be able to afford all those SVOD subscriptions, but they still have an almost insatiable demand for streaming programming. The answer, for these cost-conscious consumers, is to switch to free ad-supported TV services (FAST), such as Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi. This is reflected in global AVOD ad revenues, which are projected to grow from $33 billion in 2021 to $70 billion by 2027.
Top 5 things to know about FAST streaming TV.
4. SVOD Services Will Push Their Ad-Supported Tiers
In response to subscription burnout and the rise of AVOD services, SVOD services are adding lower-priced ad-supported tiers. HBO Max launched its ad-supported tier in June of 2022, Netflix launched its ad-supported Basic with Ads plan in November, and Disney+ launched its ad-supported Disney+ Basic level in December. If you factor in Hulu’s existing ad-supported tier and Amazon’s free-standing Freevee service, that means that all major SVOD players now have free or reduced-cost ad-supported tiers. Expect all these services to move more content to these ad-supported plans and promote them heavily to subscribers that might otherwise abandon their higher-priced no-ads plans.
5. Reboots and Comic Books Rule
When it comes to content, all the streaming services are jumping on the reboot bandwagon. Netflix has Wednesday (a reboot of the Addams Family franchise), Cobra Kai (a reboot of the Karate Kid movies), The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, That ‘90s Show, and the upcoming Conan the Barbarian series. HBO Max has a remake of Gossip Girl, Peacock has the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, and Paramount+ has a bevy of series in the rebooted Star Trek franchise (Discovery, Lower Decks, Picard, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds), as well as the upcoming Criminal Minds, Everybody Still Hates Chris, and Frasier reboots.
If a new streaming series isn’t a reboot, chances are it was originally a comic book. There is a ton of comic-inspired programming on streaming services today, and it’s not all superheroes. Consider these current or upcoming streaming series that started out as graphic novels or monthly comic books:
Amazon Prime Video: The Boys, Eight Billion Genies, Good Omens, Paper Girls
Disney+: Daredevil: Born Again, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, WandaVision
HBO Max: Doom Patrol, Harley Quinn, Peacemaker, The Penguin, Titans
Hulu: A Calculated Man, Helstrom, Y: The Last Man
Netflix: Locke and Key, Lucifer, The Old Guard, The Sandman, Something is Killing the Children, Sweet Tooth, The Umbrella Academy
6. Video Quality Will Continue to Improve
The final streaming industry trend is important to viewer satisfaction – the continuing move to better video quality. The major OTT players are embracing new technologies that let them stream higher-resolution video without increasing bandwidth or sacrificing speed. For example, the new H.266 VVC and AV1 codecs can cut bitrates in half, making 4K and even 8K resolutions feasible.
The growing adoption of 5G mobile Internet will also help to improve video quality. 5G’s increased bandwidth results in download speeds up to 20 times faster than 4G networks, which means better-viewing quality on mobile devices and for those switching to 5G for home Internet.
In addition to enabling higher video resolution, both of these new technologies will help reduce video quality issues, such as rebuffering and slow start-up times.
Other Ways to Improve Streaming Video Quality, from Penthera
Moving to higher-compression video codecs and 5G Internet are significant developments, but OTT providers can improve video quality for viewers in other ways. Many video quality issues can be reduced or eliminated with Penthera’s streaming video solutions, including 2nd Look, Fastplay, PlayAssure, and Download. These help minimize startup delays, rebuffering, playback errors, and other problems affecting video quality and the satisfaction of your viewers.
Contact Penthera today to improve your stream video quality to your customers.
