I think an underrated advantage that the online platforms have over the legacy studios is that the original content from Netflix, Prime, et al is available globally and the legacy content is not.
Netflix originals are available everywhere, the licensed content is far more restrictive. On Prime the only things available outside the US are Amazon Originals. Hulu won’t even let you log in if you’re outside the US. For whatever reason, legacy media decided they don’t want the rest of the world to be fans of their content and give them money for it. Disney is an exception since they’re starting to expand Disney+ overseas.
> the original content from Netflix, Prime, et al is available globally and the legacy content is not
This is not always true, and it depends on the nature of the “Original”. There’s really two classes: Originals fully owned by Netflix, and ones produced in partnership with a traditional TV network. The latter are branded as Netflix Originals everywhere except their home country (where they are carried by the local network instead).
> On Prime the only things available outside the US are Amazon Originals.
This isn’t true; the UK also has a lot of licensed content, if you have Prime in the UK. My understanding is they do in other markets where they offer Prime as well, but you only get access to the full library when you’re in the region where you have Prime, unlike Netflix.
That may be part of their content licensing, but that could also be a commercial decision by Amazon. (eg I also don’t get other Prime benefits from Amazon.de with my .co.uk Prime subscription.)
> For whatever reason, legacy media decided they don’t want the rest of the world to be fans of their content and give them money for it.
No, legacy media has distribution issues which they address by licensing distribution geographically before release, and once those rights are divided it's very hard to reconsolidate them.
Online streaming has been a thing for 10+ years now. Whatever distribution issues used to exist with finding a local guy to drive around a truck full of DVDs are long gone. They could have fixed this issue by now if they cared to.
> Online streaming has been a thing for 10+ years now.
Movie theaters and broadcast/cable are still a thing, and still an important component of how legacy video makes money on content. And the geographic distribution issues there still exist. And for them to work, geographic exclusivity can't ignore streaming, either.
Yeah, the thing is consumers don't care. They'll watch the content that's available. And as time goes on, that's what they'll know, what their kids grew up watching, and what they'll look for. The stuff that wasn't available they're not going to care about.
You can't convince me that, say, Warner Bros doesn't have sufficient leverage to wrest their online streaming rights away from some Bulgarian movie theater chain or whatever. I mean, come on.
Netflix originals are available everywhere, the licensed content is far more restrictive. On Prime the only things available outside the US are Amazon Originals. Hulu won’t even let you log in if you’re outside the US. For whatever reason, legacy media decided they don’t want the rest of the world to be fans of their content and give them money for it. Disney is an exception since they’re starting to expand Disney+ overseas.