Streaming services are the new magic money tree for investors – but for how long?

Streaming services are in full bloom and laden with profits, but beware – winter is coming, warns Matthew Lynn

Video Streaming Services
(Image credit: Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Streaming television and music has started to turn into a seriously profitable industry. Recently, Disney reported a 7% rise in overall profits. It made decent returns from its films and theme parks, but it was the figures from its Disney-Plus service, with hits including Rivals and Andor, that stood out, with the unit reporting that it had signed up an extra 1.4 million subscribers. Its rival Netflix has been doing even better. Earlier this year, it punched through 300 million paid subscribers globally, a 15% year-on-year rise, and, even better, it is getting them all to pay more as well.

Netflix had successfully clamped down on “password sharing” – allowing lots of people to use the same account – and it has pushed up prices, with the standard plan in the UK now costing £12.99 a month, a £2 increase year-on-year. In the US, the standard advertising-free plan is now $17.99, and there have been similar price increases in all its major markets.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.