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2 January 2022 2.00 h

The game of platforms

The positioning war between the main streaming platforms has turned into a battle to retain viewers

“it’s becoming more expensive to access so much diverse content”

The au­dio­vi­sual in­dus­try has changed com­pletely in just three years. We live in the age of hyper-per­son­alised tele­vi­sion, avail­able every­where and at all times – on mo­bile, tablet or Smart TV – the frag­men­ta­tion of au­di­ences, a se­ries boom and the com­pul­sive con­sump­tion of con­tent that is for­got­ten as fast as it is con­sumed. Tele­vi­sion has changed a lot. And it has adapted to our needs. Or is it the other way around? Maybe we are the ones who have changed? The fact is that the new tele­vi­sion via on­line stream­ing plat­forms has trans­formed the way we in­ter­act and con­sume con­tent.

Net­flix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Dis­ney +, Mo­vis­tar TV, Filmin... Be­yond con­ven­tional tele­vi­sion, the sup­ply is huge. We now find that there are too many on-de­mand con­tent ser­vices and too many se­ries to watch, to the point that view­ers are get­ting stressed out hav­ing to care­fully analyse the full range of op­tions avail­able.

Hav­ing all of them is vir­tu­ally im­pos­si­ble. Firstly, be­cause of the cost, which is un­fea­si­ble for most view­ers, but also be­cause there is just enough time time to keep up with the bat­tery of re­leases that al­go­rithms turn into the lat­est trend or to re­view our over­flow­ing watch lists.

All of this has been ac­cel­er­ated by the im­pact of Covid-19. Im­me­di­ate ef­fects that could al­ready be per­ceived when the lock­downs came. Given the sus­pen­sion of most free-time ac­tiv­i­ties – the­atre, con­certs, cin­ema – and the dif­fi­culty of re­cov­er­ing the habit of face-to-face con­sump­tion, the com­fort of watch­ing from home has made the plat­forms the big ben­e­fi­cia­ries and seen sub­scriber num­bers in­crease sig­nif­i­cantly.

One of the peo­ple who knows this phe­nom­e­non best and has stud­ied it is Elena Neira, a grad­u­ate in law and au­dio­vi­sual com­mu­ni­ca­tion, spe­cial­is­ing in new mod­els of au­dio­vi­sual dis­tri­b­u­tion, and Pro­fes­sor of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion stud­ies at the UOC. She was in­ter­viewed by El Punt Avui news­pa­per last year on the re­lease of her book Stream­ing Wars. The new tele­vi­sion (Li­bros Cúpula), in which she analysed this au­dio­vi­sual rev­o­lu­tion. Just eigh­teen months on, the land­scape has changed since that plat­form war.

Neira be­lieves that the pan­demic has ac­cel­er­ated the ma­tu­rity of a mar­ket that was al­ready ad­vanced, given that the mar­kets of south­ern Eu­rope have al­ways been at the front of the queue to in­cor­po­rate new tech­nolo­gies, pay for con­tent, and also piracy. “What has led to the pan­demic is the al­most com­plete in­te­gra­tion of the pop­u­la­tion into tra­di­tional media con­sump­tion, what ex­perts call the late ma­jori­ties, the peo­ple who take longer to in­cor­po­rate tech­nolo­gies into nor­mal use. On the other hand, a step has been ac­cel­er­ated that was in­evitable and is the re­sult of the mar­ket ma­tur­ing and sat­u­ra­tion of the plat­forms,” Neira notes. This is the next stage of the stream­ing wars: “the bat­tle for re­ten­tion.”

As the au­dio­vi­sual com­mu­ni­ca­tion ex­pert ex­plains, the big prob­lem now is that many peo­ple have more than one plat­form – and more and more plat­forms are opt­ing for ex­clu­sive ma­te­r­ial, so “it’s be­com­ing more ex­pen­sive to ac­cess so much di­verse con­tent”. Neira de­tects an “evo­lu­tion of habits that we have in­ter­nalised” and will lead con­sumers to be­com­ing “un­faith­ful”, sign­ing up for and leav­ing ser­vices as it suits us. This is there­fore the chal­lenge now fac­ing the plat­forms, “to en­sure that ex­ist­ing cus­tomers do not want to leave, with all the de­mands that this im­poses: hav­ing a lot of orig­i­nal con­tent, im­prov­ing price com­pet­i­tive­ness, and being a dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing brand that peo­ple want”.

One of the most trans­for­ma­tive as­pects of the new world of tele­vi­sion is that it has now be­come “your ex­pe­ri­ence”. It’s fast-paced tele­vi­sion, be­cause view­ers have be­come more re­luc­tant to wait, and if some­thing is not avail­able or does not work, they will look else­where. In this re­gard, Neira be­lieves that “the pre­miere con­tent used to be in the cin­e­mas every week­end, but now it’s on your TV.”

fea­ture Film & tv

A guide for users

Jordi Camps i Linnell

HBO Max, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney +, Filmin ... there are up to 35 platforms currently available to viewers in Spain. It is impossible today not only to have the full range of on-demand content services available – the number will depend on how much you are prepared to spend – but to have time to consume so much supply. What’s more, choosing is no easy task if there is more than one person in the household. Cinema or series? Are there children at home? Platform prices? Which genre or content do you like best? Here’s a quick guide for lost users.

Netflix

The forerunner continues to be essential for anyone who wants to keep up to date, especially with the latest hit series. It has popular series such as Money Heist, Bridgerton and The Squid Game, as well as other well-known series such as The Crown. It is also committed to producing films by some of the most renowned filmmakers. Quantity and quality continue to place it at the top of the tree, but at a higher price than other platforms. From €7.99 to €17.99 per month.

HBO Max

It’s not TV, it’s HBO. The slogan may sound boastful, but the truth is that HBO earned it by producing some of the best series of all time. A seal of quality thanks to Band of Brothers, The Wire, Oz, Deadwood, Six feet under, The Sopranos... even Game of Thrones! It continues to offer a powerful catalogue and features good Warner movies. It does not have much children’s content, however, and the app is poor in technical terms, less intuitive than Netflix, and not all smart TVs can download it. €8.99.

Disney +

The favourite among family audiences, and essential if there are children at home. It has built an unbeatable catalogue, led by Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and National Geographic. It also has the Star network, which includes 20th Television titles. The Mandalorian and Only Murders in the Building have received a lot of public acclaim. €8.99.

Filmin

Paradise for all movie lovers. Filmin’s catalogue is filled with classic, experimental and independent films, as well as cult series, which are presented in collections. It made a commitment to complement film festivals with streaming sessions, which has become very successful. Very good value for money. €7.99.

Amazon Prime Video

Many people have it as an add-on to the shopping service. It has very good material and is producing more and more of its own content, although this is not released as often as others. Soon to be added to the MGM catalogue, with the Bond series as a sweetener. And it will also premiere the prequel series to The Lord of the Rings. One of the cheapest options. €3.99.

Apple TV+

One of the platforms that is gaining ground by releasing quality series such as Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, Foundation and Invasion. Ideal for non-compulsive consumers. One year free with the purchase of a product or €4.99.

Vodafone

It has a wide and varied catalogue of films, and also includes the AMC series, Cosmo,

TNT, and Calle 13, among a hundred other channels. Users can access Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and HBO content, but all tied to their phone package. €50 to €75.

Rakuten TV

Headquartered in Barcelona, it is one of the platforms that allows you to subscribe, buy or rent movies. An online video store that offers some free views with ads.

Flixolé

This is the platform for those looking for Spanish cinema, both classic and modern. Here users will find films by the likes of Marisol, Buñuel and Fernando Fernán Gómez. It also has good European cinema, with an outstanding collection of Ken Loach films and Italian film. It has two subscription plans available, monthly and annual, with a 14-day trial period for both. The price is competitive at €2.99 or €29.99.

Pluto TV

Funded by advertising, Pluto TV is one of two free-to-watch channel platforms available in Spain. The other is Plex, although Pluto TV is better known. Its programming is structured like the traditional cable television model, offering its content as designated channels categorised by programme content type, from movies, news or comedy to sports, kids or local.

StarzPlay

The app is not available on some TVs but can be accessed, for example, on Amazon Prime Video for an extra monthly subscription. It has a powerful, competitively priced catalogue that includes original content as well as series and documentaries by other content creators, including worthwhile popular drama series like Normal People and Dr. Death. €4.99.

Movistar+

One of the telephone company’s media platforms, Movistar+ sometimes comes as part of a mobile phone and internet package. The channel has wide-ranging, quality content, which includes its own productions, such as the award-winning series Hierro and Antidisturbios. Movistar+ also includes such gems as The Good Fight in its entirety and features, premieres of such popular series as The Walking Dead, Riverdale and Dexter New Blood. It also offers movie premieres every Friday. However, it is not cheap, and even less so if users choose to expand the catalogue to include other platforms, such as sports. When not part of a telephone or internet service, the basic package starts at €25.

Jaume Ripoll

“The future will not depend on original content alone”

jordi camps / jcamps@elpuntavui.cat

Filmin was founded some fifteen years ago now, time which has allowed this independent Barcelona-based content platform to position itself firmly in a market that has seen giants arrive with multimillion-dollar investments in recent years.

Will the ‘new television’ end up crushing the ‘old’?
No, the old is already becoming new. We’re seeing how both public and private televisions are adapting their strategy to digital. In the case of TV3, non-linear content doesn’t exceed the linear audience, but it is big, and we have all seen TVE’s campaigns to promote a platform with its content.
You’ve released your first series. Is original content the future?
No, I think there will be a mix. We can’t be maximalist, the future of a platform will not depend on its ability to create original content. Yes, there are platforms that can capitalise on this, but subscribers want to enjoy a catalogue with many different elements. We have to think that 100 or 200 films are presented at a film festival like Cannes, Berlin, San Sebastián, Sitges and others, and they’re of great interest to audiences. There’s a lot of audience and not everyone wants an original new series on a given platform each week.
So Filmin will continue to offer diverse content and have its own production as an additional offering?
Correct. Original releases will be the mainstay, but we will maintain our own exclusive releases, which does not mean that they’re original; the most important thing is our catalogue.
The market is changing rapidly. What major transformations are taking place now?
The arrival of many global platforms. That was unthinkable three years ago, and now there are six or seven platforms with investments of over ten billion euros a year with original content. We are talking about maybe 50 billion euros of annual investment.

Feature Film & tv

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