Over the past year, streaming has been just as shaken by merger drama as market forces. Netflix and Paramount have been locked in a bruising contest to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, in a bid to bulk up ahead of the next phase of industry consolidation.
The streaming revolution has matured, and the easy wins are gone. What began as a race to collect subscribers has become a tougher contest built on pricing power and the fight for attention in an overcrowded entertainment landscape.
As traditional media giants struggle to adapt and social platforms pull viewers in new directions, the winners will be those with the scale, strategy, and stamina to keep audiences watching.
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What changed?
A few years ago, the goal was simple – sign up as many subscribers as possible. Today, investors want something tougher – growth, yes, but also profits, lower cancellations, and evidence that customers will stay when prices go up.
That helps explain why older media groups are under pressure.
Disney has made the strongest progress among the traditional giants so far, building Disney+ to over 130 million subscribers and Hulu to 64 million (as of last year) while lifting profits in its streaming business. But even for Disney, streaming success has come slowly and at great expense. It has taken years of investment, price rises, and bundling to get here.
Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount have made progress too, with 132 million and 79 million streaming subscribers, respectively. But both are still carrying the weight of declining old TV businesses.
Legacy television has not vanished, but the direction of travel is clear. Nielsen data shows streaming accounting for 47% of US TV viewing in January, having overtaken broadcast and cable combined for the first time last year. Deloitte surveys found that only 44% of consumers still had a cable or satellite subscription, down from over 60% three years earlier. The old bundle is not collapsing in one dramatic moment. It’s slowly losing viewers, month after month.
TV viewing trends by platform
Too much choice?
The trouble is that streaming is not the easy replacement many once hoped for. Consumers like it, but they’re also getting tired of paying for too many services. Deloitte found the average US household now paid around $69 a month for four paid streaming services in 2025, up from $61 a year earlier.
That’s still cheaper than the roughly $125 cable users report paying, but the gap is narrowing as streamers keep raising prices.
In the UK, Netflix now charges up to £18.99 for its premium version. The industry trend of higher prices, ad-supported tiers, or both, is one we think is here to stay.
This is where “churn” becomes important – or to put it more simply, how often people cancel. It’s now one of the best ways to judge whether a streaming service is truly strong or just having a good quarter. Data from Antenna shows churn at major streamers is lower than on some smaller platforms or niche offerings like sports. That tells you two things.
First, people are increasingly happy to dip in and out of subscriptions. Second, the biggest services have an edge because they’re harder to leave.
Scale matters
That’s why scale is back at the centre of the story.
Bigger services can spread content costs across more users. Typically, they will offer a wider library, which gives people fewer reasons to cancel. They can also build bundles, offer sports, and support cheaper ad-funded plans.
Netflix has this advantage already. Disney is trying to deepen it through Disney+, Hulu and ESPN. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have both looked more vulnerable because, on their own, they have been trying to compete with one hand tied behind their back. The merger drama is really just a scramble to build a service big enough to matter.
What are the threats to streaming?
Now the threat may no longer be another streaming service but instead, the endless scroll. Social platforms pull in more than half of US advertising spend, while younger viewers increasingly say social content feels more relevant than traditional TV and film.
Streaming used to be the disruptor. Now it’s being disrupted by free, fast, algorithm-driven content. The battle for viewers is no longer just Netflix versus Disney or Paramount versus Warner. It’s premium studios versus social platforms built on creators and recommendation engines.
YouTube is the clearest example of this. The mix of long and short-form videos, creator content, and strong recommendations is an enticing combination that engages viewers, feeding them exactly what they want.
And it works. YouTube took the top spot among streaming platforms in January.
Will AI be good for streaming?
Then there’s artificial intelligence (AI), which could make this contest even more intense. On the positive side, AI could help cut costs and improve the product. AI-powered subtitling, dubbing, trailers, marketing, etc, could all make it cheaper to push shows into new markets.
AI could reshape film and TV production, too, from script writing all the way to the big screen. But there’s a catch – generative AI is also making it easier to create cheap video at scale, especially for social platforms. In other words, AI may help streamers – but it may help their new rivals even more.
So where does that leave the streaming industry?
This is no longer a pure land grab. It’s a hard-nosed fight over attention, pricing power and staying power.
Netflix looks strongest because it has scale, profits and momentum. Disney appears to be the most credible traditional challenger. And others may need mergers, bundles or sharper strategies just to keep up.
Meanwhile, short-form platforms are training audiences to expect free entertainment that finds them, rather than the other way round.
We think the major streamers will find ways to use evolving trends to their advantage. Our preference is for the larger names, with limited exposure to legacy media, and deep enough pockets to churn out hit after hit.