Amazon is making all the rights moves in streaming, including launching a new specialty SVOD discounted bundle, investing significantly in marquee sports to drive the Prime “flywheel,” diving deeper into video podcasts and short-form, enabling product discovery and purchase within viewers’ experiences while also unifying these experiences across streaming services in just one app, plus much more.

Colin and I like the playbook Amazon is running which adheres to a strategy Jeff Bezos articulated over 10 years ago about how to use video to build value in Prime, its core revenue engine. Amazon is putting itself in a pole position for the future of streaming and TV. 

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SVOD subscriber additions are cooling, and even as the industry leans into engagement metrics, growth still drives valuations.

That's the setup for our conversation with Rahul Patel, Principal Analyst at Ampere Analysis in London, who joins us exclusively on Inside the Stream for the first time to dig into his new report on why global SVOD services might launch free, ad-supported tiers (note, not necessarily a conventional FAST service per se).

Rahul walks us through why streamers have a history of successful "big swings" - original content, password-sharing crackdowns, lower-priced hybrid ad-supported models - and where free tiers fit. He breaks down the motivations and benefits, the risks, and his predictions for which geographies are most likely to see this happen and when.

Colin and I agree free tiers are one of the biggest areas of untapped potential for SVODs, and we expect to see real movement here soon.

Listen on for this engaging interview (32 minutes, 38 seconds)

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There were a lot of new streaming dynamics that unfolded this summer, including YouTube’s growing dominance and budding rivalry with Netflix, two movies from YouTube creators that have generated a combined $900 million+ at the box office, Comcast splitting off NBCUniversal, Fox acquiring Roku, sports migrating to streaming, the ongoing Paramount-WBD saga and much more. 

We discuss the top stories we covered over the summer and what’s on tap for a busy Fall. 

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First up this week we talk about new data from Ampere Analysis showing that the growth in SVOD price increases is moderating. But the gap in pricing between ad-free and ad-tiers is getting bigger. Colin and I have a somewhat different take on the consequences of this price gap growth. From my vantage point it seems like the SVOD services are testing the commitment ad-free subscribers have to avoiding ads by paying evermore to do so. But I acknowledge everything has a limit.

We then shift to talking about YouTube. Research from Attest shows that 90% of Americans are now accessing YouTube daily, ahead of streaming and live TV. And time spent with YouTube and other social video tops streaming and live TV. 

YouTube also continues making moves to boost creator monetization and deepen creator loyalty. These include shortening up view time required to monetize a video, embedding Amazon tags to drive affiliate revenue, and potentially paying large sums to top creators to keep their content exclusive to YouTube for defined windows. 

Listen on to learn more (26 minutes, 52 seconds)

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