US Subscription Video Landscape 2018

The ever-expanding US subscription video space is ripe with monetization potential for content owners and platforms. Earning the consumer’s hard-won cash and attracting brand marketers into the digital space will pit TV networks, program distributors, tech firms and social media companies against each other as never before.

• The subscription video space has grown fiercely competitive. Not only are TV networks vying against each other, as they’ve done since the golden age of television, but companies from a wide spectrum of industries—from telecommunications to social media to technology to retail—are also determined to compete.
• Competition comes as consumers increasingly move away from traditional pay TV and toward digital streaming services. Factors driving that migration include cord-cutting, the high cost of cable and satellite contracts and a seemingly universal desire to avoid ads.
• These and other trends have created a virtuous cycle that has benefited the digital video industry. Streaming services have built large and growing audiences, and are monetizing them through combinations of subscriptions and advertising. Those revenue streams are expected to increase in the next few years as disruption continues to roil the media landscape.