Occasionally, when people can’t find their way to streaming that content, Lazenby finds himself in a different role — the guy helping people figure it out.
“I’ve been asked a few times [where to find things],” said Lazenby, whose own viewing habits include a mix of streaming and physical media.
Whether or not you look to on-screen stars to answer your where-to-watch-it questions, it seems the more things you want to stream, the more services you need.
And while consumers may complain about increasing outlays for these services, industry watchers say they likely won’t be getting any cheaper.
That means the people at home must consider what they really want to watch and what they’re willing to forego.
“Consumers really have to decide where they spend their time and where they spend their money,” said Dan Rayburn, a streaming analyst who has followed the industry for years.
More choice, but more bills
The world of streaming is increasingly fragmented with consumers having many services to choose from — even though costs add up, when successive subscriptions are carried together.
Netflix began offering its streaming services to the Canadian market in 2010 — originally at a price of $7.99 per month. It has since drawn millions of subscribers, though today’s streaming market has a lot more players vying for customers. (Mike Cassese/Reuters)
For Sandy Reynolds, the realization she was paying roughly three times what she originally did for her Netflix subscription was part of a decision “to step back,” and assess what streaming services she really needed to be paying for.
“When they’re around $20 a month, you don’t think about it that much,” said Reynolds, noting the monthly bills can add up if you have a few subscriptions on the go, as she did.
Beyond the costs of subscribing, Reynolds said it’s also a question of the value that you get from these services.
“At the end of the day, how much time do you have to watch these services and how much do you need?”
However, Ricard Gil, an associate professor of business economics at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., said that some consumers may also weigh the cost of these services against the alternative — such as the cost of going to the movies — and conclude they are not necessarily overpriced.
Streaming providers and media companies seem reluctant to share their subscriber numbers, though news reports and public statements give a partial glimpse of where some bigger players stand.
Netflix reported having 74.3 million paid memberships across the U.S. and Canada as of its most recent quarter. The California-based company declined to provide a Canada-only figure to CBC News. (David Ruvic/Reuters)
Amazon could presumably count a large number of Canadian streamers, as it provides Prime Video to anyone paying for broader customer membership privileges. A spokesperson, citing corporate policy, declined to share subscriber figures.
Crave, seen here being accessed on a phone in 2019, now counts 3.1 million subscribers, according to the latest quarterly report from BCE. (Graeme Roy/The Canadian Press)
CBC’s Gem counts 5.5 million downloads of its app, according to figures published online. The app is free to download and has several levels of membership — one of which carries a monthly fee. Chuck Thompson, the CBC’s head of public affairs, said in an email that CBC “doesn’t publicly share our subscriber numbers as we believe the most important metric is how many Canadians are accessing our service.”
The Corus-owned STACKTV has “been growing year over year” since its 2019 launch, said Vanessa Obeng, publicity manager for Corus Entertainment, without providing an overall total. In 2020, Corus said 200,000 subscribers had signed up for the service.
Higher content costs?
With so many companies fighting for customers, there’s a lot of money being thrown around to capture content and consumer loyalty.
Netflix says it will soon prevent customers from sharing accounts unless they pay an extra $8 per month. The streaming service says account sharing hurts its bottom line in an increasingly competitive market.
Queen’s University’s Gil said the acquisition of marquee content of this nature is something Netflix can bank on helping to both drive and maintain subscriber interest.
“This actually helps them with attracting new customers, but also with retention,” Gil said, noting the streaming giant could even have justified spending “much more money” to secure those sequels.
But more generally, streaming and media companies have faced rising costs for content, said Daniel Shear, an investment analyst who covers the media and telecom sectors for T. Rowe Price.
Some of those came from the challenges of trying to produce content during a pandemic, when TV and movie projects had to deal with COVID-19 concerns and related production delays.
But he said these companies are facing broader cost increases for content, including higher costs that result from the competition for key talent that creates that content.
Consolidation? Aggregation? Maybe not.
With so many players now in the streaming game, it raises the question of whether the industry will see a day where consumers will be able to see more with less effort.
Rayburn, the veteran streaming analyst, does not see mass aggregation happening — at least, not in a manner that would allow the viewing of most media across single platforms.
“Is there ever going to be a bundling where all these services get together in what we call aggregation? No, this is not going to happen,” said Rayburn, arguing it’s not beneficial for the streamers to do so.
Seeing large players consolidate their operations may also be unlikely due to the inherent complexities of combining organizations, the money involved and possible regulatory hurdles, said Queen’s University’s Gil.
He sees consolidation being something most likely to occur in the event that a particular platform shuts down, leaving “content to be bought that otherwise would not be exposed to customers.”
CHICAGO (AP) — United Airlines has struck a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to offer satellite-based Starlink WiFi service on flights within the next several years.
The airline said Friday the service will be free to passengers.
United said it will begin testing the service early next year and begin offering it on some flights by later in 2025.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The announcement comes as airlines rush to offer more amenities as a way to stand out when passengers pick a carrier for a trip. United’s goal is to make sitting on a plane pretty much like being on the ground when it comes to browsing the internet, streaming entertainment and playing games.
“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do on board a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world,” CEO Scott Kirby said in announcing the deal.
The airline says Starlink will allow passengers to get internet access even over oceans and polar regions where traditional cell or Wi-Fi signals may be weak or missing.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ukraine should be allowed to strike deep inside Russia, regardless of Moscow threatening that this would draw Canada and its allies into direct war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the NATO military alliance would draw itself into war if it allows Ukraine to use donated weapons to make long-range strikes inside Russia.
His comments come five weeks after Ukrainian forces stormed the border and put parts of Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since the Second World War.
Trudeau says Canada “fully supports Ukraine using long-range weaponry” to prevent Russian strikes on hospitals and daycares across the country.
He says Ukraine must win in fighting back against Russia’s invasion, or it will encourage other large countries to try absorbing their neighbours.
In May, Washington began allowing Ukraine to use American weaponry to strike inside Russia, but only for targets near the border being used to attack Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
“Canada fully supports Ukraine using long-range weaponry to prevent and interdict Russia’s continued ability to degrade Ukrainian civilians (and) infrastructure, and mostly to kill innocent civilians in their unjust war,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., on Friday.
“(Putin) is trying to deeply destabilize the international rules-based order that protects us all, not just in every democracy around the world, but in all countries around the world,” Trudeau said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
