With the internet, cable and satellite TV programs weren't able to catch up with the growing trends and demands.
Streaming video is becoming a major business in the industry that in 2018, established names like Netflix and Hulu have increasing their number of subscribers, even surpassing those using cable and satellite TVs.
Those media-streaming companies continue to grab the market share, as traditional providers are becoming more fragmented. Those cable and satellite TV companies have tried to slow down the growth of their online competitors by offering new contents, but haven't been that successful in adding much.
The number of consumers subscribed to pay TV have dropped from 73 percent to 67 percent in 2018. On the contrary, Netflix usage was around 76 percent, surpassing both cable and satellite for the first time.
For the report, PwC surveyed 2,016 people in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 59, with annual household incomes above $40,000.
"We analyzed our results against similar studies we administered in past years, and ran cluster analysis on 68 attitudinal and motivational statements. Additionally, we conducted consumer and industry insider focus groups," explained PwC.
"As pay TV subscriptions continue to decline," the report notes, "they are replaced by a number of live and on-demand streaming options that continue to grow by the day."
Streaming services have been successful because they do things differently than their traditional counterparts. These businesses are known to provide their cheap services, but remain convenient, ad-free and contract-free. They have changed the way that people consume media, by offering them reliable alternatives to cable companies.
Streaming services also gave consumers a new way to watch serial TV shows.
Instead of requiring people to rush home to catch the new episode of what they are watching, with online media companies, these people can simply wait for the content to come out on a streaming service, and watch it on the most convenient time.
As an added plus, a lot of these streaming services use machine learning algorithms that encourage consumers to watch shows they might have missed. The algorithms can also suggest contents based on their preference, making them particularly useful.
With so much potential, other big companies like Disney, WarnerMedia and Apple have wiggled their way into the streaming party, with each of them trying to tailor their contents to their specific audience to stay relevant and successful.
The only major downside of these online services is that, people use them as long as they are things to watch.
For example, if Netflix users are done with a show and didn't see anything else that interest them, these subscribers can cancel their subscription.
Worse, if subscribers managed to watch all the movies and the shows they want within their first free month, then Netflix doesn’t get any revenue.
"Viewers can use a dizzying array of services to create their own consumption ‘nirvana.’ However, there is bound to be an upper limit on both how many different services a consumer is willing to pay for and how much time she has in the day to consume. This leads some in the industry to believe the growth in content and platforms may not be sustainable over the long term."
In short, hit shows bring people into streaming services, but they don’t necessarily keep people around.
On the other hand, TV channel has the advantage of giving people the good reason to renew their subscription because they show contents week-by-week, keeping the demand relatively stable.
