Disney+ launched two days ago to more than 10 million signups, indicating the streaming wars are still gaining steam. As streaming services battle it out, technology and strategy consultant Michael Wolf says companies like Amazon and Apple, who can offer cross service bundles, will come out on top.
Amazon ($AMZN) and Apple ($AAPL) offer two services for streaming. First, the companies offer respective subscription services, but both also offer a "tax" on other services that use those platforms to stream. For example, the Apple TV app includes other, non-Apple subscription services, like Hulu and Netflix.
"The biggest winners ... the people who are going to make the most money, are going to be Amazon and Apple, because they're going to get this tax on everyone's [subscription] sold, with no cost attached to it," Activate's founder and CEO Michael Wolf told Cheddar in an interview Thursday.
Studios are spending billions of dollars for rights to new stories for original content. Almost 500 scripted shows came out in the U.S. in 2018, with the number likely to grow as new players enter the race this year.
"If you look at how people are signing up for these services, the great majority of signups for all the other services are going first through Amazon and then through Apple," he said. "Both Amazon and Apple are taking a hefty tax, over 30 percent of that revenue, every single month for selling those services."
Globally, internet and media businesses are expected to add $300 billion in growth dollars, according to Activate's new "Technology and Media Outlook" report. That number is growing faster than the GDP, according to the report, compiled with information from the International Monetary Fund, among others.
"We forecast that, within four years, the average American is going to be using five of these [streaming] services," Wolf said.
Major players in the streaming wars currently include Amazon's Prime Video, Apple's Apple TV+, and At&T's forthcoming HBO Max, but it remains to be seen which of the services consumers will turn to in the long run.
Wolf said he expects to see more bundling of services, like the Disney+ deal that includes Hulu and ESPN+.
His team analyzes consumer trends, technological innovations, and industry dynamics annually, compiling a "Technology and Media Outlook."
He called the report a "glimpse of how people will spend their time and money."
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
