TV & Streaming
The Cable Fee Engine Stalls
Broadcasters' cable fees were a growth engine. Now pay-TV homes are falling 5.8% a year and price hikes can't keep up. A $1.2 billion yearly shortfall is hiding inside forecasts that still expect growth.
TV & Streaming
Every major source of television money is weakening at the same time, and the industry has no backup plan.
TV & Streaming
Streaming Becomes a Rental Habit
Young viewers now rent streaming one show at a time — subscribe, binge, cancel, repeat. Monthly cancellations have nearly tripled since 2019, quietly repricing $2.9bn of yearly revenue that services still value as if subscribers stay.
TV & Streaming
TV Operating Systems Become Tollbooths
The companies that run your smart-TV menu — Roku, Amazon, Samsung — have turned the home screen into a tollbooth, taking an estimated $2.6bn a year from the people who make and stream the shows.
TV & Streaming
Too Many Streaming Ad Slots
Streaming services are making ad space faster than advertisers will buy it. Auction ad prices are down 25.8% in a year; Amazon just added 50 billion more slots. That's a $3.1bn-a-year hole the Street still calls a soft patch.
TV & Streaming
Local Sports TV Money Collapses
Regional sports networks are collapsing, and the deals replacing them pay about half as much. We estimate $1.3bn of local-sports TV value destroyed each year — but team valuations still assume the old money.