Streaming Services and Talented Artists

By Aya Darwish

Streaming Services Boom!

Lockdown and self-isolation that forced us to stay at home have changed many things in our lives, including our entertainment behaviors. Since we spent more time at home during the quarantine, we may have subscribed to some streaming services such as Netflix, thus increasing the demand on streaming services in 2020. According to Conviva, the viewing time peaked and increased globally by 44%in 2020. As a natural outcome of the high demand on streaming services, new streaming services providers entered the market, old streaming services providers flourished and sought to increase their market shares. With the 2020’s boom in the number of subscribers, the number of broadcasted series, movies, and documentaries also skyrocketed. Apart from the commercial perspective, the rapid increase in streaming services has unleashed creativity and encouraged scriptwriters and talented creators to create more content. However, this was not the first boom in this industry since Netflix started to produce its movies, films, and documentaries in 2013 under “Netflix Original” in parallel with buying TV rights.

The Foggy Path of Talented Artists and Creators

Talented creators are in the midst of the crossroads, as they compete on who will get more followers/subscribers/viewers. This is what the world was busy doing in 2020.

This trend has become clearer in different fields, whatever your talent is. One can benefit from this through work that can be done at one of the different platforms. Movies, programs, documentaries, children’s content, teenage content, adult content, and every type of content are available according to your talent and what you want to do.

This impetus allowed even young creators to join the increased demand. But one wonders if such impetus will end soon. The main driver behind it is the change in recreational behavior, but now with the return of outdoor activities, will subscribers keep those subscriptions?

One person is usually involved in about five platforms – that was according to a survey done on 1,907 people in the US by Hub Entertainment Research – which is not much different from the rest of the world. If this industry started to witness a decline in growth rates, would it open the door to get rid of that huge number of creators who produce that content? Will the field remain tempting for startups to open more platforms, or will the high demand for creating platforms disappear? Will the current platforms adopt new strategies to maintain subscribers, such as reducing the subscription rate to a minimum? It is still too early to conduct deep studies on this boom in that industry.

However, the fate of these creators who joined the field in that period might be foggy. Should they think of other professions? Would the industry retain the most talented and then weed out people who haven’t coped with the fierce competition and the constant development?

Share