Keep in mind some streaming platforms that seem questionable are just basically thin fronts for conent owners, Paramount Plus falls in this vein. Paramount has always made its money by selling content, its streaming service (that I think, like a lot of such services, is mostly outsourced technically), is just another distribution channel in many respects.
Peacock is backed by a really big media company that has already acquired a decent bit of other content producers.
There’s a bit of a dissimilarity between Netflix and some of its competitors in that Netflix is entirely dependent on its own distribution (aside from a token amount of theater films they distribute specifically for award show purposes), Paramount and NBC were making money from their content before they ever launched Peacock or Paramount Plus.
I tend to think people that view streaming as “new business model” are a little off base, at least when it comes to content producers. Content producers have basically always had the same business model–they produce content, then sell it. The sales channel has always varied…at one point it was exclusively movie theaters, but then it also became TV, later home video, now streaming etc. There’s probably always going to be companies that produce content, and they are going to want to sell it multi-modally.
Netflix and a couple of its smaller competitors who only distribute content via streaming do represent a bit of a new thing, but I’d argue Netflix has steadily become more like Disney or NBCUniversal than its old form. Netflix 1.0 was largely about changing the distribution channel for other people’s content and making money off of it (first through DVDs, then you can maybe say Netflix 1.5 was about distributing other people’s content via streaming.) A lot of the major content producers eventually decided quite deliberately they didn’t want to prop up Netflix’s business (which in the initial streaming era, was largely built on the fact a lot of content producers didn’t think streaming was that valuable, and leased them a ton of content on the cheap); Netflix has largely responded by taking its cash pile over the last 5-7 years and becoming more of a content producer than a re-seller.
Well if you have specific needs it can be helpful. Like those in the Apple ecosystem may find an Apple TV more useful as you can do things like type in passwords on your iPhone (and use an iPhone as a remote). You can also use your phone as a remote if you have an Android and a Chromecast with Google TV.
It would be weird if Netflix slowly declines. Partly because it would be reminiscent of the fate of Blockbuster Video, which was once dominant in the retail video rental business but was largely replaced by Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service. And also because Netflix was the first big streaming service and introduced people to the idea. But most of its competitors have other revenue sources to support their streaming services, while Netflix has nothing else to fall back on. And Netflix has spent money like a drunken sailor on content; I think $17 billion last year. They may have overspent as they signed fat deals with showrunners like Shonda Rimes and Ryan Murphy.
Netflix knew that players like Disney & HBO were going to enter the streaming field with vast and valuable catalogs. Netflix spent money to build their own catalog. They probably need more though to stay relevant.
I think their biggest error was the fee kept going up to the point where loyal users, there from the DVD days started cancelling for part of the year.
I’m one of those. Last month, I canceled both my Netflix streaming subscription and my Netflix DVD-by-mail subscription (and that one I’ve had for more than fifteen years).
In order to remain profitable it was probably necessary. I think that the head of Disney recently revealed that Disney+ is losing money. Now obviously Disney has plenty of cash, but eventually they’ll likely raise their rates as well.
Netflix is the just the first streaming service looking to actually make a profit on this thing (though services like AppleTV+ and Amazon Prime Streaming may be loss leaders for a good long while.