Media industry financial analyst Brian Wieser, today at the helm of his own Madison & Wall advisory firm, has combed through the quarterly results of every major distributor of video content. But, rather than focus on net income and revenue, Wieser examined the total spending by consumers on all video, including traditional pay TV services, physical video media, streaming video and theatrical video.
His conclusion? There’s been a “significant slowdown” in the growth rates seen in 2021 and 2022, making 2023 look a lot like the growth seen across the 2010s.
According to Wieser’s calculations, U.S. video spending “probably only grew by around 1%” in 2023.
This compares to growth rates of 4%-5% seen in 2021 and 2022, he notes.
But, there’s one big difference between 2023 and the 2010s: streaming services and vMVPDs weren’t significant players back then.
Where is the consumer spending trending? To little surprise, the “cord-cutting” narrative continues, with traditional pay TV and virtual MVPDs experiencing a revenue base dip. Streaming spending continues to increase.
Does this mean that streaming platforms are the way to go, when looking at longterm consumer revenue generation trends?
“At the right scale and with continuous investment in infrastructure and best practices across the various aspects of the operations, streaming can be a good business,” Wieser says, adding that while it may be not as good as pay TV used to be, it is better than what is mostly seen today from traditional media companies’ streamers.
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