{"id":92228,"date":"2024-11-03T05:00:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=92228"},"modified":"2024-11-02T21:54:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T01:54:59","slug":"the-end-of-the-cheap-streaming-era-is-at-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2024\/11\/03\/the-end-of-the-cheap-streaming-era-is-at-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of the “cheap streaming era” is at hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ted Gioia<\/a> explains why your streaming services are going to be jacking up their prices — if they haven’t already done so:<\/p>\n

I got a request to explain why streaming subscription prices are so damned high \u2014 and getting higher.<\/p>\n

This came in response to a chart I shared two days ago<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Source<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

And it’s not just Disney.<\/p>\n

All the streaming platforms are jacking up prices. I still subscribe to five different streaming services\u2014down from six previously. Every one of them raised prices this year, and always by more than the inflation rate.<\/p>\n

Here’s what Spotify is doing:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Source<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

What’s going on? And will it continue?<\/p>\n

I recently described this as an “endgame strategy” \u2014 but that might be confusing to readers. <\/p>\n

Endgame<\/em> is a term drawn from chess<\/a>, where it refers to a body of wisdom about the final moves on the board. But business is like chess, so I frequently analyzed endgame situations back in my days at the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey.<\/p>\n

I now see these endgame strategies getting implemented in various media, entertainment, and streaming businesses. But almost nobody inside those businesses wants to talk about it.<\/p>\n

So let me lay it out for you.<\/p>\n

The Entertainment Industry Is Adopting an Endgame Mindset<\/strong><\/p>\n

You pursue an “endgame” strategy when demand for your business hits a wall, and it’s hard to attract new customers. The most typical endgame strategy is to cut back investment into new products and services, while raising prices sharply.<\/p>\n

You’re willing to accept some loss of customers, because you’re now squeezing more profit-per-user out of your remaining consumers \u2014 who stick with you out of loyalty or habit or inertia.<\/p>\n

These are your sheep, ready to be shorn.<\/p>\n

Profit per customer is now the key metric driving your business. It’s more important than innovation or growth or artistry or any of those old fashioned ideas.<\/p>\n

That’s why, for example, Netflix won’t share data on the number of subscribers anymore<\/a>. They claim this is no longer relevant to their business model \u2014 and they aren’t lying.<\/p>\n

Price increases are now the engine of their business. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ted Gioia explains why your streaming services are going to be jacking up their prices — if they haven’t already done so: I got a request to explain why streaming subscription prices are so damned high \u2014 and getting higher. This came in response to a chart I shared two days ago: And it’s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,28,13],"tags":[58,200,101],"class_list":["post-92228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-media","category-usa","tag-internet","tag-music","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-nZy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92231,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92228\/revisions\/92231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}