Radamés Camargo, from CIU, shared with us the latest competitive trends in subscription-based video-on-demand streaming platforms, which continue to boost their competitiveness in the supply of audiovisual content to attract and retain audiences.
In order to strengthen their business model, SVODs have found it necessary to increase their investment in original content and diversify their offering of titles and genres, in addition to diversifying their plans with reduced prices, as well as acquiring licenses for the transmission of live events, which have been extremely lucrative.
As is well known, today consumers have a growing number of SVOD platforms that compete head-on in terms of prices, content and user experience, in a dynamic market that is moving towards a phase in which there are better supply conditions for the consumer.
Users are thus seeking to maximize their money for the hiring and continuity of subscriptions due to adverse macroeconomic difficulties for audiences.
According to the CIU study, audiences can access one of these platforms for 49 pesos, but at a lower price than other traditional alternatives. On average, users have to pay 186.5 pesos to have a subscription.
On the other hand, at the end of the first half of 2024, the increase in platform prices has resulted in an increase in the proportion of users who have contracted only one alternative (55%), the vast majority, compared to a smaller proportion who are subscribers of two (26%) or three or more (19%).
Undoubtedly, players in the SVOD market must maintain their price competitiveness in the so-called ‘streaming war’ in which the difference between one platform or another is not only the content, but also the price and contracting plans of these. This is to avoid the frequent departure or rotation of users.
An attractive business model for contracting platforms is the offer of differentiated plans, especially low-cost ones with the inclusion of advertising guidelines. This has resulted in an increase in the number of users who have their own account to 36% of the total, while 64% say they share their password.
In the case of Netflix, the main player that since last year imposed restrictions on the sharing of streaming accounts, it has reported favorable additions and growth in its subscriptions globally as a result of this strategy.
Other competitors are also introducing bundled platform offerings, for example, with the inclusion of the Star+ catalogue within Disney+ in Mexico and Latin America and the launch of the Disney+, Hulu and Max combo in the United States.
All these actions are focused on offering consumers better tariff conditions, maintaining their competitiveness among alternatives in this market as well as with others outside of it, and generating loyalty and commitment in the hiring of platforms.
