It’s been a truly weird 2 years. I’m desperately trying to avoid the word “unprecedented” because I’ve come to LOATHE it. Anyhoo, here we are in Lockdown Land again in Australia while the US is having covid spikes, hospitals overloaded and a high death toll, including a remarkable death toll among anti-vaxxer “celebs”. Streaming entertainment seems much safer than stepping foot outside these days.
Not all streaming services are equal
However, not all streaming services are equal. Stan apparently has a higher percentage of Australian-made content than other providers like Netflix. Amazon Prime really pisses me off because it shows a lot of content then says “oh, you’re a subscriber and you want to watch this? PAY MORE MONEY”. I just unsubscribed. It’s no fun looking for something to watch on Prime; it’s better to subscribe to see a specific thing, then get the hell out of dodge until there’s something else specific I want to watch.
Disney is nearly as bad as Prime but – I think – Disney doesn’t mix the additional-payment-content with the regular content as much. It’s more openly labelled. Kinda. I think. Still, I subscribe to Disney to watch The Mandalorian, Loki, and other awesome content then unsubscribe so I can subscribe to another channel in between major releases.
All the way through I subscribe to Netflix. The reasons are twofold: Netflix has a huge range of content with no “PAY MORE” gotchas plus we have a “family” option so we’re sharing Netflix with my brother-in-law, who’s not, shall we say, well off. I don’t think he watches Netflix much but it’s always available to him when appealing free-to-air content may be a bit thin on the ground. Ironically, Netflix allowing “family sharing” means they get more money from us because, without family sharing, we’d unsubscribe from Netflix while we’re subscribing to another platform. After all, I can only watch one thing at a time on TV. Hubby either watches with me or one of us watches solo while the other one is busy. We don’t need 2 streaming services simultaneously.
JustWatch sent us this data on how others are streaming
SVOD market shares in Q2 2021
The margins between Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max & Netflix and Prime Video continue to grow smaller. Netflix is the market leader by a 8% margin, and Prime Video now holds just 6% over Disney+. Apple TV+ didn’t find the key to growth while offering a free trial, and we will see how ending the trial affects its market shares in the Q3 analysis.
Market share development in 2021
Disney+ and HBO Max were the only two streaming services to gain market share (+1%) through Q2. The mid-field SVODs managed to retain their shares, but the larger players Netflix and Prime Video saw the most drastic change in market share.
How do you manage your streaming services?
Do you stream? Do you rely on local content like local commercial TV stations who also have a paid channel? How many streaming services do you use? What about your friends and families? Feel free to comment below and/or respond on twitter.