TBI Tech & Analysis: Behind the changing fortunes of US pay-TV & streaming key players

Wednesday

As North America’s pay-TV & streaming landscape continues to shift, Sarah Henschel, principal analyst at Omdia, explores the changing fortunes of some of the key players in the region.

In 2022, online subscription revenue reached $39.2bn in North America, up 23% YoY.

Online channel revenue in the US is dominated by Netflix, which accounted for 36% of total 2022 consumer spend in the region; this is down from 41% of the total in 2021. Although Wednesday streamer Netflix is losing share, its annual revenue continues to grow and is up $1.1bn from 2021. Netflix’s subscription revenue is about 4x higher than Disney+ in the second-highest spot.

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The top-five streaming services all lost share YoY in 2022, due to impressive growth of services across the board.

Netflix’s revenue is followed by Disney+ (9%) and Hulu (8%), with HBO Max (7%) the fourth-largest channel in terms of revenue. HBO Max surpassed Amazon Prime Video in 2022, moving up in share.

Crunchyroll, the anime streaming service now majority owned by Sony, saw 92% year-over-year growth in revenue. The service also merged with Funimation, Wakanim, and VRV, bringing the US subscriber base up to 6.3 million subs.

As Showtime merges into Paramount+, Starz continues to be a streaming asset that could provide an acquisition opportunity. It is currently owned by Lionsgate, which has explored selling the asset off to other buyers. Starz has strong content, but a relatively small catalog compared to other players has prevented the service from taking off as one of the major players over the past couple of years.

The excerpt above is from Pay-TV & Online Video Report: North America – 2023, written by Omdia’s Sarah Henschel, principal analyst for Media & Entertainment. Omdia, like TBI, is part of Informa Tech. To read this in-depth report in full, click here (subscription required).