The international SVOD space once only held Netflix and Amazon as its major players, but now more SVOD services than ever are entering the global arena, with even once local players such as Viaplay and Globoplay now eyeing international expansion.
Netflix once dominated the market both in terms of subscribers and its sheer number of digital originals, but its leading position in these areas are under threat. Everyone has a stake in the digital streaming wars now, with Free TV broadcasters launching their own SVOD initiatives while at the same time AVOD services are emerging to snap at the heels of Free TV. But it is US Studio owned SVODs that hold some of the largest amount of firepower in the digital space, with most now hitting their stride and attempting to lead the charge, drastically increasing their digital original output to already put themselves in a position to challenge Netflix in scripted content volume alone.
Over the past few months we have done a number of deep dives on these Studio SVODs - find out the latest that Show Tracker has revealed about these studio SVODs below.
Disney+
More than any other Studio SVOD, with perhaps the exception of StarzPlay (admittedly on a much smaller scale), Disney is all in with the vertical integration of its content. Virtually everything that comes from the Disney Platform Distribution catalogue is destined to debut on Disney+ outside the US whether it’s commissioned by Disney+, Hulu, ABC, Freeform or FX. The enhancement of the SVOD abroad with Star changed the distributor’s levels of vertical integration almost overnight.
HBO Max
WarnerMedia would probably hope to divert as much of its content to its own services as Disney but a series of long-established volume deals have kept this activity on hold. With certain homes of HBO such as Sky Atlantic in the UK, Germany and Italy promised HBO TV series until 2025, the international expansion of the SVOD is being kept at bay for now. Warner’s volume deal with VodafoneZiggo in The Netherlands ended earlier this year and was followed promptly by the launch of HBO Max in the market, demonstrating how quick a launch turnaround the studio is aiming for in its potential future markets.
Paramount+
The recent rebrand of ViacomCBS to Paramount signifies a renewed commitment from the studio to the SVOD but so far its approach to vertical integration has been disparate and varies from territory to territory. While more recent developments such as its imminent launch in the UK seem to show the beginnings of a more unified international strategy, the sheer volume of titles from the Paramount catalogue gives the studio the potential to play multiple angles, supporting their SVOD service while also bringing in revenue with sales to third party services increasingly starved of US content.
Peacock
NBCUniversal has historically held lower levels of vertical integration than the other studios internationally with much of this type of activity limited to Peacock Originals appearing on Sky platforms and conversely Sky Originals appearing on Peacock in the US. So far international expansion of the SVOD has been limited as a branded section on the Sky platform, with the studio setting up some volume deals of its own with certain international third parties for Peacock Originals.
While each Studio faces its own challenges to succeed in the streaming wars we are nonetheless beginning to see an acceleration in all of their strategies. Even those that are perhaps not quite all in like Paramount and NBCUniversal are finding innovative ways to expand, with the studios coming together to launch their joint venture Sky Showtime in the European markets later this year. Their overall effect on the landscape puts many other services, both linear and VOD, in a precarious position, not least because their previously steady pipelines for US content are now being diverted away from them. The opportunity therefore lies with those few distributors who do not have their own D2C service (or those that haven’t been acquired by one) to entice these third party services with their own content.
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