Where Entrepreneurs Can Innovate in the Streaming Services Space

There are many companies focused on improving the way we watch TV — companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google to name a few. They join others like Samsung, Roku and Comcast in pursuing the same prize: making themselves the guardians of your living room.

And who can blame them? The world’s largest media and technology companies are launching new content at a rapid rate and spending $220 billion globally creating and acquiring content in 2021 alone. But putting together this content portfolio is only half the battle, of course. Exposing it to consumers who are willing to give up their credit card to see it is a struggle in itself. Pursuing the consumer’s eyeball and the marketing spend that supports it is a viable opportunity for the world’s most powerful companies — and one they are aggressively pursuing.

Now is the time

The reason so many of the world’s most successful companies are chasing this market now is because the advent of streaming has fundamentally changed the way we watch TV. The fact that streaming services are rapidly replacing the hours we normally spend watching network and cable TV is only part of the story.

The growing popularity of streaming services has not only changed what we watch and where we watch it, but it has radically changed too how do we watch. These changes appear to be largely undetected, resulting in a rapidly growing consumer segment that is not getting the attention it deserves, even from big tech.

TV is changing for consumers

Streaming is changing the way we consume entertainment and creating new freedoms in the way we do it. Streaming is the new way to watch TV, with 82% of American households owning at least one streaming subscription and 53% of Americans owning at least three. Streaming has undoubtedly changed the way we think about entertainment at home, and the way we consume content has shifted with it.

As more and more hours of our viewing shift from linear TV to on-demand streaming services, consumers can find and watch what they want, when they want, and wherever they want it. As a result, many viewers spend less time watching television with their feet raised and more on non-TV devices that are portable and easily accessible. And it’s not just a mobile story.

Despite significant supply chain disruptions, PC shipments are up 15% in 2021, and these devices, especially laptops, are playing a big role in this change. In fact, the majority of adults now watch videos on non-TV devices every day, a trend driven by Gen-Z and millennials but present across consumers of all age groups.

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New behavior creates new opportunities

As big tech grapples with controlling the lean-back experience, more and more consumers are embracing their newfound freedom and relying on their video consumption across multiple devices. After all, streaming content is available on demand and can easily be watched when and where people choose — whether sitting at their desk, at a coffee table with their laptop or anywhere on their tablet or phone.

Consumers now also have more control in other ways, in today’s almost limitless forms of discovering, organizing, and consuming content. But as we’ve all learned, seemingly limitless choices come at a price. Today more than ever, finding what to watch is an unpleasant and difficult experience with many consumers reporting that they spend more than 20 minutes trying to choose what they want to watch next, only to finally give up and try and get it right. old favourite. They didn’t start with the intention of re-watching it Friends episode for the umpteenth time, but that’s where a lot ends.

Related: The Battle Between TV-Streaming Giants Continues, But Consumers Are The Real Winners

Lean on consumers

Many consumers are starting to expect more from their entertainment experience. Instinctively, they know that content discovery and management can be done much better, especially as they increase their time on non-TV devices that can provide entertainment.

Consumers are looking for personalized recommendations based on everything they watch, not just the options suggested to them by one streaming service. They want to see curated lists of what’s new or trending alongside recommendations from influencers and even their own friends and family. And they want recommendations tailored to their personal preferences as well as a watchlist that covers all of their streaming services and lets them play their next favorite from any of them with just one click. In short, they wanted a next-generation TV guide that was designed from the ground up for today’s streaming-centric experience — and one that didn’t just connect to the TV in their living room.

Could the solution come from the tech giant? Of course, I can. But their impressive capacity for innovation seems to be centered around a relaxed living room experience. This creates an opportunity for other highly innovative technology companies to harness the full power of the web to deliver engaging experiences for video discovery, organization, sharing, and consumption — better models, and models that move with consumers from their laptops or tablets to their phones, and even return to connected TVs when they are ready to stand.

Someone will send it, and it’s probably David rather than Goliath.

Related: ViacomCBS, Now Paramount, Overhauls Its Streaming Strategy to Compete: ‘Why Don’t You Do This?’