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Category: Digital Transition Leaders

Innovators, disrupters and thinkers who are contributing to the digital transition in media, arts and culture.

Streaming video scramble

A scrum of streaming video competitors has emerged in the past few years to challenge front-runner Netflix. Specific subscriber data is closely held, but here is the competitive landscape as of mid-2021 according to public sources.

Subscribers to U.S. video streaming services (Q2 2021 or as noted)

CompanyUS & Canada SubscriptionsGlobalBusiness model Notes
NETFLIX74,400,000208,000,000Monthly subscription
DISNEY + (Disney)n.a.103,600,000Monthly subscription
HULU (SVOD only) 
(Disney)		n.a.37,800,000Monthly subscription
HULU (SVOD + live tv)
(Disney)		n.a.3,800,000Monthly subscription
ESPN +
(Disney)		n.a.13,800,000Monthly subscription
HBO and HBO MAX (WarnerMedia)44,200,00063,900,000Monthly subscription
AMAZON PRIME VIDEOn.a.175,000,000*Annual subscription* # who streamed video, out of 200 million global total subs
PEACOCK (NBCUniversal)42,000,000*Monthly subscriptions, also
free, ad-supported version		*”sign-ups”
PARAMOUNT +, SHOWTIME, NOGGIN, BET + (ViacomCBS)n.a.36,000,000Monthly subscription
PLUTO TV (ViacomCBS)n.a.50,000,000Ad supported
STARZ (Lionsgate)n.a.16,700,000*Monthly subscription*streaming, out of 29.5M total
DISCOVERY +n.a.13,000,000Monthly subscriptionMerging soon with WarnerMedia
APPLE TV + (Apple)n.a.33,600,000*Monthly subscription*Ampere Analysis 2019 (cited by The Wall Street Journal)

Sources: CNBC, individual service web pages

Mary Meeker’s internet trends

Veteran internet analyst Mary Meeker published Our New World in April 202o as the covid-19 pandemic gripped the world. In it she wrote:

None of what we are going through is comfortable, or fair. And while things will likely get worse before they get better, has America, perhaps, just gotten the wake-up call it needed to get to a better place?

Her last full annual report arrived in 2019. Among its conclusions:

  • Worldwide growth of internet users had slowed to 6 percent (3.8 billion people) as most of the world is already online
  • Americans spent 6.3 hours a day online, up 7 percent, with most  growth coming from mobile and other connected devices
  • The internet will become more of a “cesspool” as getting rid of problematic content becomes more difficult
  • Privacy is a growing concern and a bigger selling point. 
  • Telemedicine and on-demand health consultations will grow as health care become more digitized.

See her 2019 presentation here (via ReCode)

Mary Meeker’s 2017 internet outlook

Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins has released her annual report on internet trends for 2017. Key takeaways include:

  • Internet users continue to grow at a 10% annual rate, and the average user spends 5.6 hours daily with digital media, more than half of that on mobile devices;
  • Smartphone growth has slowed to 3% from 10% last year;
  • Digital advertising spending has overtaken TV ad spending, led by Google and Facebook, and has become increasingly measurable

Here is the full slide presentation (355 slides)