Malone: Streaming Consolidation Will Come

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.multichannel.com/news/malone-streaming-consolidation-will-come

Liberty Media chairman John Malone believes that consolidation, which has swept through the traditional cable distribution business largely at his own hand, will come to streaming video as well, and that could be good news for traditional pay TV companies.

Malone, speaking at Liberty’s annual Investor Day in New York, said that first the streaming business will likely experience a period of “hyper-competition” as more and more content owners crowd in to the space.

Already several content owners have debuted direct-to-consumer services -- Disney’s Disney+ offering was launched on Nov. 12 and had 10 million people sign up for the service during its first days, while Apple TV+ launched on Nov. 1 to considerably less hype. AT&T plans to begin offering HBO Max in May in addition to an IP-based streaming service -- AT&T TV -- later in the year.

“In the short run you’re going to see hyper-competition as content owners try to get into the scripted streaming global market space,” Malone said during a Q&A session at the Liberty Investor Day. “I think a lot of investment is going to go in to trying to capture leadership market share in that space. Eventually they’ll be consolidation in that space because it probably won’t support as many competitors as currently think it represents a good opportunity. Some will become niche players, some will become more national players less global players. Quite a few will survive and be able to watch as less competition turns down the heat under the cost of creation of new content.”

I kind of see this happening though.