Netflix And The Competition: Who Needs The Oversupply?

2023 Author: Sheila Hailey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 04:29

Actually a wonderful development - the golden era of TV entertainment always produces new and exciting formats that don't have to shy away from comparison with blockbuster productions from the cinema. Game of Thrones was just the beginning, continued with countless other products from the television world. Who, for example, currently "Star Trek: Discovery"looking at Netflix in Germany, believes to see the latest cinema edition of the space epic in the face of the professional staging - and this is not only due to the excessive use of "lens flare". And yet the latest Star Trek series is an outstanding example of the fragmentation problem. In the USA, the Discovery does not fly over the screen at Netflix, but at the newly founded video-on-demand service "CBS All Access". The fans were obviously delighted. So if you want to "fly", you still have to subscribe. Other providers will also go their own way in the future, for example Disney - away from Netflix, towards their own service.

Quiz: Which streaming provider is right for you?

After you have tested your series taste with us and found out which "Game of Thrones" house you belong to, we show you with 13 simple questions which streaming provider suits you. Is a Netflix subscription worth it? Or should the service be as comprehensive as Amazon Prime? At the end there is a small evaluation.

In the end, this means for the customer: higher costs, because instead of a pay TV station like in the early days of television entertainment or a maximum of one or two streaming providers, he now has to assemble premium television more and more from several “channels”. One should not forget the mandatory radio license fee in German countries. There comes a little bit together. Probably the only “alternative” for one or the other user: Switching to illegal offers - has actually been in a downturn since the triumphal advance of Netflix and Co., but will soon be on the upswing again? If you prefer to be honest, you can use family accounts instead and share the costs. However, this is also not always practical, above all, you probably do not always share an account in the closest environment - a profound coordination process is then required.

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Learn from music streaming? Probably not

The music market is carved out of a completely different caliber. Whether Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music … doesn't really matter, because the catalog of offers is almost identical. Only occasionally do you secure exclusive albums and artists. As a result, it is sufficient to subscribe to a single streaming provider. Why is there no such intimate unit of abundance in the film and series sector?

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Quite simply: the “music” product is completely different. You may be able to design bands and artists here and there on the drawing board, but we find our personal taste in music to be much more individual - a mixture of old masters and new discoveries. Artificial "superstars" have a shorter half-life with us. In the end, music is - despite the business - always more art that can sometimes only be planned according to scheme F to a limited extent. In contrast, films and series can each be viewed in isolation as an independent, original consumer product. If successful, there will be an "update", ie a continuation. These formats are accordingly suitable as exclusive bait for streaming providers.

Glance into the glass ball: The end of fragmentation

So do we have to put up with this development? First of all, because every provider wants to increase its margin. Direct sales, i.e. their own streaming service, seems to be the appropriate means. If you ask me, but not in the long run. The customer's finances and willingness to spend them on television entertainment are finite. If more and more suppliers are pushing onto the market, the pieces of cake are getting smaller and smaller. Sooner or later the cost-benefit question arises. Then the great death of streaming services begins. In the end, there are only two or three providers left. They unite the remnants after the "streaming war", which is now coming up, and from then on they sit lonely on the iron throne of TV entertainment.

What kind of couch potato are you?

Thank you for participating in our survey - the preliminary result is available after answering the last question (number 4).

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the GIGA editorial team.

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