Wondering why streaming prices are going up, and services are cracking down on password sharing? Well, it likely has to do with the fact that Comcast, Disney, and Paramount all lost a combined $8.4 billion on streaming in 2022.
In 2022 Paramount lost $1.8 billion on their direct-to-consumer streaming services. Comcast lost $2.5 billion on its streaming services, and Disney lost $4.1 billion on their streaming services, according to Rich Greenfield.
At the same time, Netflix made a profit of $6.5 billion in 2022.
Disney and Paramount expect their services to become profitable in 2024 or 2025. Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, has said his main focus right now is to make streaming profitable.
“The Board is overseeing important strategic changes that our CEO Bob Iger is executing, such as putting more decision-making into the creative teams, implementing a cost reduction plan, prioritizing streaming profitability and improving the guest experience in our parks.” Disney said in the letter to shareholders.
To help with profitability, Disney is reportedly looking at licensing some of its programs to other services and maybe even selling Hulu.
Comcast is trying to drive up profitability by no longer offering a free option of Peacock. Current Comcast subscribers with free Peacock will lose access to it this summer.
As more streaming services launch, the market is becoming tighter. The question now is will all of these services find a path to profitability that won’t scare away their subscriber.