One Clear Casualty of the Streaming Wars: Profit

Streaming is poised to win big during lockdown not just because of demand-side effects but also supply-side effects.

But the studios overlooked that streaming was more convenient than cable, as Netflix beamed images directly onto viewers’ laptops—and, soon enough, televisions and smartphones—with no annual contracts, cancelable at any time. Above all, there were no ads

Studios are already moving titles to streaming channels.

Broadcast television gave anyone the ability to watch TV. Since anyone could watch, the business model became advertising. With advertising, you want to maximize the number of eyeballs you can get which lead to lowest common denominator content or broadcast TV

And so it helped, but we didn't see a major reaction in terms of return to growth and monetization in the market. That really started to change around 2014, 2015 as streaming came to the market and streaming, to me, solves not only the first point, which is around the UX and the digital experience, but it solves the monetization point too.