Commentary

The Coming, Even Bigger Explosion In Streaming Video

With the broadcast networks’ upfronts presentations over and done, it’s probably worth pointing out that in a recent report Juniper Research predicts that by 2019, the number of people subscribing to over-the-top streaming services will top 322 million, from 92.1 million in 2014.

Content delivery is a such a muddy business. How consumers get entertainment doesn’t mean much to them, but for the content providers, getting on all screens all the time is going to become crucial.  I’m still a little dubious of predicting subscribers, though.

So much has happened--and so many new services keep getting added--the total by 2019 could be a lot different. It seems almost quaint to note that the economy has something to do with all of this: If times are tough, entertainment add-ons are subtracted.

Still, according to Advanced Television.com, the Jupiter study says Chromecast and Amazon Fire, game consoles and others, is where much of that subscriber action will be happening, also in part because Smart TVs generally have poor operating systems.

Adds BetaNews.com,  “The sheer number of ways to push streaming content to TVs -- set-top boxes, games consoles, and plug-in streaming sticks -- means that more and more people are creating their own smart TVs. The growing market has spawned more players in the field, and this in turn has led to greater competition.”

MINDY REPRIEVE: I’ve tried to like “The Mindy Project,” but Mindy Kaling’s Fox sitcom always seemed to be lot more contrived than comical. Still, she has a solid following. And so when Fox canceled the show last week, Hulu quickly came to the rescue with an order for another season.

Data reported by CMO Today indicates why. According to the Web analytics firm SimilarWeb, “The Mindy Project” was the eighth-most-watched program on Hulu from last November until last month, which is good enough to keep it around. Eighth-best on Hulu, which has mountains of series to choose from, seems to be a feat, but it doesn’t constitute a huge audience, I’d suppose. SimilarWeb provides an unauthorized top 20 of Hulu shows on the CMO site, unauthorized because Hulu doesn’t release that kind of info. On that chart, “South Park” is at the top.

ANYBODY YOU KNOW? The British Marketing Magazine.com starts the week off right with its helpful, “Psychopaths Are Everywhere: How To Deal With Them At Work” in which behavioral psychologist Charlotte Austin-Talbot asks  “But what is it that attracts them to the marketing and media industry?”

And she answers: “Everyday psychopaths tend to flock towards industries where they have control of people or interact within a fast-paced space, as they can easily hide and their erratic behavior seems more acceptable. There are many traits that contribute to making someone a psychopath; pathological lying, a lack of empathy, superficial charm and a parasitic lifestyle are just a few of these.”

With that, have a nice day.

pj@mediapost.com

 

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