But why would American studios persist in investing so much in streaming, accepting to lose tens of billions of dollars? Why did the two French free-to-air channel groups insist so much on their ability to deploy new streaming offers as part of the renewal of their agreement? Why do public service channels rely on their online services to rejuvenate their audiences?
Quite simply because the slow decline in the television audience is a tangible reality, particularly in the United States, where streaming services occupy an increasingly important place. Admittedly, the situation is slightly different in France where the slope is less steep for TV audiences (individual viewing time lost 15 minutes in 2022 according to Médiamétrie), but overall it is part of the same downward trend.
The consequence is clear: for the first time in 2023, American adults will spend more time per day watching digital video than television. The total time spent with digital video and television will remain slightly above 6 hours per day (6h06), the same hourly volume as in 2020 (6h06).
Of the 3 hours and 11 minutes spent watching streaming each day, the largest share will be on connected devices like smart TVs and game consoles, rather than desktops, laptops or mobile devices . An additional problem for the channels which must share the “TV Set”, that is to say the television set with the other VOD, SVOD, AVOD services and the FAST channels.
The rise and then the takeover of streaming services will therefore redistribute the cards of the audiovisual market by 2025, in particular for American groups that manage both TV channels and streaming platforms.