Long gone are the days when we’d venture to the local Blockbuster to rent DVDs or tapes. The downfall of the once mammoth movie rental empire has made way for video-on-demand online streaming services.
The popularity of these platforms was boosted by the pandemic, with people around the globe flocking to the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ for entertainment at home. As subscriber numbers have snowballed, the industry's behemoths have been fighting it out for every last dollar. But some platforms' popularity is starting to decline.
Read on to discover who's winning the streaming wars battle today. All dollar values in US dollars.
Sports streaming service ESPN+ is owned by Disney, in partnership with ESPN, and launched in 2018. The platform boasts 24.9 million subscribers, which is pretty impressive considering that it's currently only available in the US. The ideal platform for sports fans, ESPN+ offers everything from live games and events to college sports and even sports-themed movies and documentaries.
Despite strong growth, it hasn't all been plain sailing for the platform. Disney's three streaming services, ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu, reported revenue losses in the final business quarter of 2022, and ESPN+ subscribers faced a 43% price hike last August. Despite the price increases, the platform still gained around 600,000 new subscribers between quarter four of 2022 and quarter one of 2023.
The new kid on the block, discovery+ only arrived in America in January 2021, yet it boasted 24 million subscribers by the end of the first quarter of 2022. It debuted in India back in 2020 and since its launch Stateside is now available in select US territories as well as a range of European countries, with plans to roll out further across Europe, Asia and Latin America. The platform has a massive archive of 55,000 TV shows from Discovery Inc.'s portfolio of 14 television networks, including the Food Network, TLC, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.
Discovery+ and WarnerMedia, the entertainment company behind Warner Bros., DC Comics, CNN, and fellow streaming service HBO Max, have now merged. This is a huge potential moneymaker for discovery+, which is expected to see its already impressive archive of TV content grow now that the hotly anticipated $43 billion (£35.9bn) deal has closed. Since April 2022, the new company has gone by the moniker Warner Bros. Discovery. The platforms discovery+ and HBO Max will merge later this year.
Despite reported projections originally being much higher, Apple TV+ is estimated to have 25 million paying subscribers globally as of March 2022. It's thought that about 50 million users worldwide use the streaming platform via promotions such as the free one-year membership that comes with the purchase of a new Apple device, though the tech giant is notoriously secretive about its exact figures.
Research company Digital TV Research has projected that the streamer will reach almost 36 million subscribers by 2026, as it continues to grow its modest content library.
Most of the content available to stream on Apple TV+ is original, with flagship shows including comedy series Ted Lasso, which won seven Emmy Awards, and The Morning Show, which is helmed by Hollywood icons Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. The platform is eager to expand its content library, however, and snapped up the Sundance Film Festival hit CODA for a record $25 million (£20.9m).
CODA went on to win the coveted Best Picture prize at 2022's Academy Awards, making history as the first film from a streaming site to receive the top award.
Launched in 2007, Hulu now boasts approximately 48 million paying subscribers according to Statista. The platform is available in the US, Puerto Rico, and Japan. The streaming service is owned by Disney and Comcast, which have a 67% and 33% stake respectively. However, a deal struck by the two companies will see Disney have 100% ownership of Hulu by 2024. This could prove to be profitable: according to Disney, Hulu raked in revenues of $4.4 billion (£3.26bn) in 2020.
Hulu hasn't officially stated the size of its content library, though it's thought to have around 43,000 TV episodes and over 2,500 films. Its flagship show, The Handmaid's Tale, based on the bestselling book of the same name by Margaret Atwood, has won an impressive 15 Emmy Awards since its 2017 debut. A cheaper ad tier launched in December, with the ad-free plan receiving a price hike.
Originally created in 2014 as CBS All Access, the streaming service was rebranded as Paramount+ and relaunched in March 2021 following a merger of media companies CBS and Viacom. By the fourth quarter of 2022, the platform boasted 56 million subscribers, an increase of 10 million since the previous business quarter.
The service is currently available in the US, Australia, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East (as a paid-for TV channel), and some European regions, including the UK.
Paramount+ has an impressive array of content – sourced from channels such as CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, MTV, VH1, and Showtime, as well as the Paramount Pictures library – which offers something for everyone. Its extensive library of children's entertainment, which includes favourites such as Peppa Pig, SpongeBob SquarePants, and PAW Patrol, is set to compete with rival Disney+. Last year, the streamer also exclusively released a live-action adaption of the popular video game Halo to much fanfare.
HBO Max, which debuted in America and Latin America in May 2020 and in selected European countries in October 2021, had 81.2 million subscribers by the end of the second quarter of 2022. Currently the streaming service has about 10,000 hours of content. This includes original content, Warner Brothers classic movies, and films from the DC Comics universe. This year's merger between Discovery Inc. and parent company WarnerMedia could potentially see HBO Max's entertainment catalogue balloon.
As mentioned, following a merger between Discovery Inc. and its parent company WarnerMedia, platforms HBO Max and discovery+ are set to combine later this year.
Though HBO's content library will undoubtedly soar, the merger may have some drawbacks. Warner Bros. Discovery’s third quarter of 2022 earnings were lower than expected, and so prices are now set to soar when the platforms combine.
Dubbed the Netflix of China, iQIYI is a Chinese video-on-demand service. In December 2022, the platform had 119.7 million subscribers.
Between September 2022 and December 2022, the platform added over 13 million subscribers.
iQIYI states that it has an extensive entertainment library of both original and third-party content. In 2017, iQIYI inked a deal with Netflix, which doesn't have a presence in China due to restrictions, in an agreement that meant some of Netflix's original content would be available to stream on iQIYI. According to iQIYI CEO Gong Yu, this deal has now ended.
Launched in 2011, Tencent Video is China's largest streaming service. According to the latest estimates, it has around 122 million paying subscribers. By 2017, Tencent Video was one of eight Chinese apps in the top 30 mobile apps with the highest revenue in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The platform features a wide range of content, including Chinese animation, TV series, soap operas, and movies. Original content is said to account for 65% of its output, and it also offers live-stream programming. It exclusively aired the 74th Golden Globe Awards live in 2017.
Tencent introduced WeTV, a version of the company that's available outside of mainland China in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India, in 2018. Last year, the platform inked a content partnership deal with streaming platform Rakuten Viki.
Disney+ had 161.8 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2023. The platform has about 7,000 TV episodes and 500 films in its catalogue, which includes Walt Disney Studio's animated classics and Pixar films, making it a popular choice for parents with young children.
Major purchases mean the platform can stream the hugely popular likes of the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, as well as creating original content around those brands. It also has the rights to stream content from National Geographic, as well as from several major film studios, including 20th Century Studios and Hollywood Studios.
In addition to Disney+, streaming services Hulu and ESPN+ are also owned by Disney.
However, it's not all good news for Disney. The platform lost 2.4 million subscribers between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. This is the first time since its 2019 launch that the platform has lost subscribers. CEO Bob Iger attributed the decline to losses suffered by Disney+ Hotstar, the southeast Asian/Indian branch of the streaming service. Last year, Disney+ Hotstar lost the rights to stream the massively popular Indian Premier League cricket league, which was evidently a huge blow for Disney.
Not one to miss a money-making opportunity, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos launched Amazon Prime Video worldwide in 2014, except in mainland China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. To date, the platform boasts over 200 million subscribers.
In 2020, Amazon's subscription services raked in a cool $25 billion (£20.8bn), but this figure includes Amazon Prime Delivery memberships. The standard subscription includes approximately 24,000 movies and 2,100 TV shows. Customers also have the option to rent or buy additional content and channels.
Bezos attempted to buy fellow streaming giant Netflix back in 1998 for approximately $16 million (£13.3m), although his offer was declined. Today, Amazon is going all-out to beat its biggest rival, as well as other streaming services.
Amazon paid a whopping $8.5 billion (£7.1bn) for MGM, the film studio behind the James Bond and Rocky franchises. Competitors Apple and Comcast were also keen to purchase it, but Amazon's multibillion-dollar cheque ultimately won the bidding war. Additionally, Amazon Prime Video debuted its Lord of the Rings series in 2022, which cost more than $1 billion (£834m). The rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's works alone cost $250 million (£208m).
The early bird catches the worm, as the saying goes, and Netflix, which started out as a DVD rental and sales mail order firm in 1997, was one of the first to venture into streaming in 2007. It's now the world's largest and most successful streaming service and is available worldwide, with the exception of mainland China (due to local restrictions), Syria, North Korea, and Crimea (due to US sanctions). Netflix had nearly 231 million subscribers at the end of 2022, according to Statista.
Netflix had only 1,000 titles when it first launched as an online platform, but now it has over 17,000, and since it began producing original material in 2013, it has created upwards of 1,500 titles. One of its most popular original shows, Squid Game, boasts over 1.6 billion hours watched. Netflix has received over 204 awards for its original content and is set to expand its self-made content library even further.
Netflix surpassed its subscriber growth targets in the final quarter of 2022, adding 7.7 million subscribers. That same quarter, the streamer launched its cheaper ad-supported plan. However, not everyone is happy with the controversial decision, with Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes among the showrunners who have told Netflix that midroll advertisements disrupt their storytelling.
In another unpopular move, Netflix has cracked down on password sharing. The streaming service will now charge fees for extra member subaccounts when people outside of one household use the same membership. This scheme is now in effect in various countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain, but is expected to roll out globally.
Now take a look at the most expensive movies ever made and how much they grossed