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Media consumption is somewhat different here in Scandinavia, but while prices on streaming services are increasing, i can still manage to buy both Netflix and H
by 8fingerlouie 6y ago
Media consumption is somewhat different here in Scandinavia, but while prices on streaming services are increasing, i can still manage to buy both Netflix and HBO Nordic (~$14 each) for less than the price of the smallest Linear TV package, consisting of 5 free channels, and 4 paid channels ($40).
Add to that, that the linear tv channels spam me with commercials at a frequency and duration so that it feels like the commercials is the content (which is probably not far from the truth from a broadcasters perspective).
I'd say that the "breaking point" is around $20/month. After that it is no longer possible for most people to have 3-5 streaming services, and there will be a battle for customers, and we're going to see an increase in piracy again.
In Denmark (and possibly more European countries) you can get "streaming bundles" with your mobile subscription with a 10%-20% discount. I.e. Telmore (https://www.telmore.dk/ https://www.telmore.dk/) offers a "Telmore Play" bundle, consisting of unlimited/free calls/texts, 60GB data (of which 32 are free for EU roaming), as well as Netflix, HBO Nordic, Viaplay and TV2 Play (last 2 are danish/nordic). This bundle will cost you $52/month.
Upgrade it to $60/month and you also get unlimited data, a music streaming service (Telmore Music) as well as Bookmate which is a "book streaming service" (not really needed as public libraries are free and offer everything as ebooks anyway)
As prices increase, i think we're going to see more and more deals like this. Netflix etc. will be the new "middlemen" in the coming decades and have less and less direct customers.
As to why it ended up being the cell companies distributing it, i can only guess that the danish (nordic?) cell market was/is highly competetive, and for the past 20 years prices have been downward spiraling. That has changed in the last 5 years or so with prices starting to increase, but the amount of goods/services offered increasing as well. It is no longer enough (in Denmark at least) to simply offer more calling time/data, and we've arrived at "unlimited" at <$50/month.