The streaming business is at a pivot point. Streaming services from major entertainment companies have been collectively losing billions of dollars for years, and now their corporate owners are ready for them to turn a profit.
But that isn’t stopping them from offering steep, steep discounts to entice new subscribers for Black Friday.
It’s the quintessential Catch 22 of streaming: You need to bring new users into the fold, but you need to monetize them too.
And even though streaming isn’t quite yet a profitable business (Disney and Max are certainly close), the fierce competition means that they feel they still need to be aggressive when it comes to securing those subscribers.
With an exception, of course: Neither Netflix, nor Amazon Prime Video, nor Apple TV+ are offering any discounts. If you are already extremely profitable (like Netflix), or financed by a tech giant (Amazon and Apple), discounts are, it seems, unnecessary.
Disney is offering a number of Black Friday discounts, including a year of Hulu for $0.99 per month, or a year of the Disney Bundle of Disney+ and Hulu for $2.99 per month. New Hulu subscribers can also add Starz as an ad-on for $0.99 per month for a year (yes, Starz is available as an add-on for Hulu).
Disney, it is worth noting, seems to be the entertainment company that has turned the corner in streaming, with its direct-to-consumer business delivering net income of $321 million in its fiscal Q4.
At NBCUniversal, Peacock is offering a one year subscription for $19.99, or six months of the service at $1.99 per month.
At Paramount, despite the uncertainty around Paramount+ with the looming Skydance takeover, the company is offering a discount, with both Paramount+ and Paramount+ with Showtime offering a $2.99 per month deal for six months.
And Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max is taking a similar approach, offering six months for $2.99 per month.
There is, of course, a catch with the Black Friday offers.
With the exception of Paramount+ with Showtime, all the deals involve their advertising tiers. This makes sense, as for many of these companies the ad tiers generate higher ARPU than the ad-free options. So even with the steep discounts, the companies have a way to try and make up for the lost subscription revenue, and if users stick around after the discounted rate ends, even better.
And Peacock, the streaming service that appears farthest from profitability (it only lost, uh, $436 million last quarter) is offering a yearly plan to try and lock users in … and hoping that they tune in so they can monetize them via ads.
Streaming is a tough business. With the exception of Netflix, profits are hard to come by. But subscribers, it seems, are even harder to come by. So Black Friday sales are making a comeback, and are likely here to stay.
English (US) ·