A second factor is content. American cable TV is running out of shows as studios move their best ones to their own streaming platforms. In Europe, where some streamers have yet to launch, pay-TV firms retain the rights to many of the most popular titles. Britons seeking the third season of WarnerMedia’s “Succession”, for instance, must go to Sky, a Comcast-owned satellite firm, since Warner’s HBO Max has yet to stream outside the Americas.
The last reason Europe still favours cable is that American streamers have forged partnerships with European pay-TV firms rather than competing with them. In the race for subscribers, the quickest way for streamers to bulk up in Europe has been to join forces with satellite and cable incumbents. They are the ones with access to consumers and the ability to handle local marketing and ad sales. In Spain, Vodafone offers bundled subscriptions to Netflix, Disney+ and others. Next year ViacomCBS’s Paramount+ will launch in six European countries on Sky’s platform.
Will cord-cutting eventually cross the Atlantic? As long as Hollywood studios continue to license their programming to local players, consumers will have every reason to stick with pay-TV. For the studios themselves those deals are lucrative, points out Mr Broughton: “Doing a Disney and cancelling all those contracts, then replacing them with your direct-to-consumer service, leaves you with a bit of a gap in your financials.”
In the long run, though, studios would rather bring viewers onto their own platforms, as in America. In that scenario, pay-TV firms may be left with little to offer but sport, alongside streaming bundles of the sort offered by France’s Orange or Britain’s Virgin Media. Warner plans a gradual European roll-out of HBO Max over the next few years. By the time the fourth season of “Succession” is out, audiences may be watching it online. ■
