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.”
HOUSTON (AP) — Brian White scored in the second half to rally the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night.
Houston (12-9-8) took a 1-0 lead into halftime after Ezequiel Ponce scored on a penalty kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Ponce’s third goal this season came after Amine Bassi drew a foul on Whitecaps midfielder Pedro Vite following a video review. It was Ponce’s sixth career appearance, all starts.
Vancouver (13-8-7) scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute when White, who entered in the 60th, used assists from Fafá Picault and Ryan Gauld to find the net for the 13th time this season. Picault’s assist was his fifth, matching his career high for a single season. Gauld’s assist gives him a career-best 13 on the season.
Yohei Takaoka, who had clean sheets in his last three starts, finished with one save in goal for the Whitecaps.
Steve Clark saved three shots for the Dynamo, who remain one point behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings.
Houston, which was coming off a 4-1 victory over Real Salt Lake, has allowed just 33 goals this season.
Vancouver — 6-2-2 in its last 10 matches overall — leads the all-time series 10-9-6.
The Whitecaps remain on the road to play the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday. The Dynamo travel to play Austin FC on Saturday.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Tom Pearce and Nathan Saliba scored in the second half — the first goals of their careers — and CF Montreal rallied for a 2-2 draw with the New England Revolution on Wednesday night.
“In the second half, the guys came out a little more ambitious and above all, more connected,” Montreal head coach Laurent Courtois said. “It was a great second half of resilience and fighting spirit. Nathan and Sam were impressive.
“Impressive in covering the gaps and compensating for the teammates, and the individual defending – yes it’s true, it is a lot of weight on their shoulders, but that’s the job.”
New England (8-16-4) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute on Bobby Wood’s third goal of the season. Teenage defender Peyton Miller notched his first assist in his fourth career start and sixth appearance and Carles Gil picked up his ninth of the season. Peyton, at 16 years, 315 days old, is the eighth youngest player in league history to record his first assist.
The Revolution took a two-goal lead in the 35th minute and held it through halftime when 19-year-old Esmir Bajraktarevic took a pass from Gil and scored his third goal of the season and career in his first full season in the league. It was the 73rd regular-season assist in Gil’s career, tying him with Steve Ralston for the most in club history.
Montreal (7-12-10) pulled within a goal in the 54th minute when Pearce scored off a free kick after defender George Campbell drew a foul on New England’s Mark-Anthony Kaye. It was the first goal for Pearce in his third career start and fourth appearance.
“Playoffs are the goal. Maybe it wasn’t in the best form, but in the end, we are picking up a point,” Pearce said. “We came into this game confident, ready to play our own game. Everyone tries their best, whenever the players are called on, we are always ready, and we are always giving it our best.”
Montreal scored the equalizer in the 68th minute on the first career goal by Saliba, a 20-year-old midfielder. Saliba has made 34 starts and 48 appearances with Montreal in his two seasons in the league. Campbell snagged his second assist of the season and the third of his career.
“It’s an incredible feeling, it’s a goal I’ve been waiting for a long time. I’m extremely happy that I was able to score it and that it can help the team take this important point on the road,” Saliba said. “Pearce’s first goal gave us really good momentum and we kept up the pressure to go for a second goal. We got more solid defensively, and we came back ready after halftime, to push for these 3 points.”
Aljaz Ivacic finished with four saves in goal for the Revolution.
Jonathan Sirois stopped four shots for Montreal.
New England beat Montreal 5-0 on the road on Aug. 24.
New England leads the all-time series 16-13-4. Montreal improves to 5-8-2 on the road against the Revs.
The Revolution travel to take on Charlotte FC on Saturday. Montreal returns home to host the Chicago Fire on Saturday.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Adolis García hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning, Cody Bradford pitched seven strong innings after the worst start of his career, and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 on Wednesday night.
The win kept the defending World Series-champion Rangers alive in the AL West race, trailing first-place Houston by 10 games with 10 to play.
García launched an inside sinker over the left-field wall off Toronto starter Bowden Francis (8-5) after Wyatt Langford singled.
“He swings hard, he swings a lot,” Francis said of García. “I guess the velo was dropping during that time.”
Bradford (6-3) allowed five hits and no walks while striking out six.
The seven shutout innings are the most in a game during his two-year career. He was knocked out of his previous start after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and homers (three) in 3 2/3 innings in a 14-4 loss at Arizona.
“Throughout the week, you’ve got to try and digest what happened, see where I can make adjustments, whether it was just game plan went wrong or just poor execution, or a little bit of both,” Bradford said. “Then you flush it.”
Bradford was perfect through four innings before Alejandro Kirk opened the fifth with a smash back to the mound that caromed off Bradford’s left foot and rolled into right field for a single. It extended Kirk’s hitting streak to a career-high 12 games.
Spencer Horwitz’s double to left-center put runners on second and third with no outs before Bradford retired the next three batters.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider credited Bradford’s “deceptive fastball.”
“When you’re throwing 89, 92, you’ve got to have pretty good deception with that at this level,” Schneider said. “Kept us off balance.”
Kirby Yates pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 31st save in 32 opportunities.
Francis, who took no-hitters into the ninth inning in two of his previous four starts, allowed a double to Marcus Semien, the Rangers’ first hitter of the game. He gave up five hits and one walk in six innings.
Francis has a 1.96 ERA in nine starts with 54 strikeouts and seven walks since being moved back into the starting rotation in late July.
“I don’t even want to get complacent, on cruise control,” Francis said. “Just keep attacking.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette was a late scratch with a right middle finger contusion suffered during infield practice. Schneider said the team will get back x-rays on Thursday. Bichette was activated Tuesday following a calf injury and played for the first time in two months, going 2 for 5 with one RBI at the plate. … INF Will Wagner (left knee inflammation) will have the knee scoped on Thursday. Schneider said Wagner should be ready to start spring training. Wagner, son of former major leaguer Billy Wagner, was acquired from Houston at the trade deadline.
UP NEXT
Rangers rookie RHP Kumar Rocker (0-0, 2.25 ERA) will make his home debut against Blue Jays RHP Kevin Gausman (12-11, 4.02) in the series finale. Rocker allowed one run in four innings at Seattle last Thursday in his major league debut.
