Streaming Content on the Rise

Posted August 29, 2023

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The number of shows on streaming platforms is rising dramatically. 

According to studies by Nielsen, the number of shows on streaming platforms has increased by 40% in the last two years. 

This is not a surprising fact as the prevalence and domination of streaming has been a hallmark of media over the past decade. 10 years ago the major player in original streaming content was Netflix. Since then there has been an explosion of streaming options. HBO (now Max), Disney, NBC, Amazon and many more have gotten into the steaming game — with many more smaller operations as well. Many have come and gone, like Quibi. 

Streaming video content is the king of the internet and that does not look like it's going to change. Not only are there streaming sites of high-quality professionally produced content, but also ones that specialize in user-generated content — like TikTok and Instagram. 

Since these platforms are not linear, they require a tremendous amount of content. In the days of broadcast and cable, you only needed enough content each day to fill the broadcasting schedule. That is something every hour or half hour, of every day. With streaming content is dislodged from the time on the clock. Now you can never have enough content. A person can choose what to watch and when they want to watch it, and the streamers never want you to exit their app. Therefore they need an endless amount of stuff on there. Take a quick scroll through any streaming service and you will see a seemingly never-ending list of shows and movies. Some that you’ve heard of and some that you’ve never heard a single thing about. They’re made because they always need more of them. They never want the user to reach the end of the list, so they must always be adding new programming. 

This is an exciting opportunity for those who make content. If you can make something that people want to watch, chances are there’s an outlet that will want to buy it and put it on their list. Current strikes aside, the hunger for content, both from consumers and from distributors, has never been larger. This also doesn't take into account social media content which is not measured by Neilsen. The number of creators and 'programs' on those platforms is undoubtedly much larger. Everything is video now. The rise is 40% in these past two years but I would bet that the increase will be even larger in the years to come.