The Future of Video Streaming Platforms: Outlook and Trends to Follow
- dfilipenco
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
The streaming industry has exploded from being a niche service to becoming a dominant force in entertainment.
In the U.S., for instance, households are spending around five hours per day watching streaming content, based on data from Comscore, while the top 10 streaming providers have 1.5 billion subscribers.
As we look ahead, streaming platforms are rapidly evolving, embracing new technologies, business models, and strategies to meet changing consumer expectations.
Global Video Streaming Market and the Leading Platforms
Although Netflix was the first on the streaming market, the next stage of video streaming services will feature smart bundling to lessen option overload, as well as ad-supported pricing models that cut costs without sacrificing viewing experience.
In terms of overall Over the Top TV (OTT)/streaming market growth, in its report, PwC highlights the following:
Global OTT video revenues (including Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), Advertising-based Video on Demand (AVOD), and Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) are expected to register growth from US$169 billion in 2024 to US$230 billion in 2029.
Customer spending on combined OTT video, along with traditional pay TV, is expected to increase slightly from US$291.3 billion in 2024 to US$318.5 billion in 2029 (a 1.8% CAGR), which illustrates a slowing pace of subscription growth as a result of market maturity and price sensitivity.
In 2027, on a global scale, consumer revenue from OTT video (SVOD + TVOD) is likely to exceed traditional pay TV revenue, the report outlines.
The US OTT market is expected to retain its title as the world's largest OTT market by growing at a 5.9% CAGR from US$61.9 billion in 2024 to US$112.7 billion in 2029, according to the same PwC report.
Explaining the terms:
* OTT TV – describes video, television, or film content that users can access via a high-speed internet connection (not a cable TV or satellite TV subscription).
The biggest market players are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max.
* SVOD – describes a streaming service model whereby a customer pays a monthly or annual fee to gain unlimited access to a library of on-demand video content.
Some of the providers include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, Paramount+, and regional players such as iQIYI and Youku.
* TVOD – describes a model where a customer pays a one-off fee to rent or buy certain films or television series (instead of paying a regular membership price for a library of content).
Some of the players include Apple TV/iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google TV, and YouTube.
* AVOD – describes a streaming model where customers clients gain access to video content free of charge by watching adverts.
Some of the players include YouTube, Hulu, Peacock, Pluto TV, and Samsung TV Plus.
Global TV vs Global OTT (SVOD+TVOD) Revenue
Some of the global streaming players, including Amazon, YouTube, Paramount+, and HBO Max, have morphed into hybrid SVOD and virtual pay TV providers, which are also known as vMVPDs or Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor – services that offer live and on-demand TV programming via the internet – while steadily expanding their content, functionality, and features.
Furthermore, they have continually raised their subscription fees over time, reducing their long-standing price advantage over conventional pay TV services.
And even though OTT platforms are banding together around ad-supported plans as a major growth driver, the revenue growth in OTT is also leveling out, and there are several reasons for this, based on the PwC report:
Strong competition
Customers’ resistance to higher costs
The industry’s relative immaturity (it is still working out the wrinkles in the user experience and pricing).
Emerging Trends Shaping the Streaming Landscape
PwC predicts that streaming will be an important driver of growth for the entertainment and media industry, but the era of massive subscription-only growth is coming to an end, with market players focusing on ad-supported streaming.
Trend 1: Shift toward advertising-supported models (AVOD)
The percentage of total OTT revenues from AVOD is expected to increase from 20% in 2020 to 27.1% by 2029.
More streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and HBO Max, are introducing or expanding more affordable options that allow users to view movies and shows with adverts.
Regional notes:
In markets like India, the OTT landscape features over 50 platforms representing extreme fragmentation
In China, inexpensive short-form ‘micro-dramas’ on platforms like Douyin are thriving despite the reducing popularity of the subscription model
In Brazil, the main strategies include free ad-funded services and internationalization.
Trend 2: Personalization with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Today’s streaming platforms use AI tools to provide hyper-personalized content recommendations, assist with user interfaces, and improve viewing experiences:
With the help of advanced algorithms, market players are able to evaluate a user’s viewing history, real-time behavior, and search patterns, as well as their contextual patterns, such as time of day and device.
Using AI, companies can improve the technical quality via automated subtitles/captions and real-time content moderation.
Amid subscription fatigue, streaming platforms use AI to offer highly personalized recommendations.
Trend 3: Interactive and gamified experiences
Various streaming platforms are now focusing on interactivity, which performs two important tasks:
Increases the time users spend on the platforms
Differentiates between short-content video rivals such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
One of the earliest examples of such content is Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Features such as real-time polls, Q&A, and audience voting that are also gaining momentum.
Then there’s gaming integration. For instance, Netflix Party Games allows subscribers to play multiplayer games on smart TVs or web browsers using phones and/or tablets as controllers.
However, Twitch and YouTube Live are the most popular in this regard, featuring live streams with badges, rewards, and donations. This is because the most active users are younger audiences (Gen Z and Alpha).
Trend 4: Flexible and hybrid monetization
One of the key changes in the streaming industry is the shift from pure subscriptions (SVOD) to hybrid models that encompass subscriptions, advertising, and transactional options.
Many platforms offer several tiers:
A premium plan without ads
A cheaper plan with ads
A completely free version supported by ads.
Ad-supported streaming is registering rapid growth, with both AVOD and FAST (free streaming TV with ads) becoming the main revenue drivers.
PwC predicts that AVOD will account for about 27% of all streaming revenue by 2029.
Trend 5: Super-aggregators
As the number of services increases, it is obvious that users will want more simplicity, which is why the industry is steadily moving towards super-aggregators which are unified hubs that combine many streaming services in one place
This means that customers don’t have to manage lots of separate apps and subscriptions and they receive one bill, one interface, but many streaming services.
As users, we will be able to access a universal menu that features, for instance, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and more, all side by side, with cross-platform search and recommendations.
Competitive Landscape: Giants, Niches, and Live Content
Currently, there’s a group of major players in the streaming market, who manage the largest share of worldwide subscribers:
Top 10 largest streaming platforms
Rank | Platform | Subscribers | Parent Company | Notes/Additional Info |
1 | Netflix | Netflix, Inc. | Largest global subscription streaming service | |
2 | JioHotstar (JioCinema + Disney+ Hotstar) | Reliance (via Jio) and Disney | JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar merged to form JioHotstar | |
3 | Amazon Prime Video | Amazon | Prime Video subscribers are tied to an Amazon Prime membership | |
4 | Disney+ | The Walt Disney Company | ||
5 | HBO Max (now Max in many regions) | Warner Bros. Discovery | Combines HBO content + Discovery content in the U.S. | |
6 | Tencent Video | Tencent | One of China’s biggest streaming platforms operates WeTV internationally. | |
7 | iQIYI | Baidu | Often called “the Netflix of China” | |
8 | Paramount+ | Paramount Global | Paramount also owns Pluto TV | |
9 | Hulu | The Walt Disney Company | ||
10 | Peacock | NBCUniversal (Comcast) | Fast U.S. growth and growing internationally via Sky (part of Comcast) |
These platforms have moved away from aggressive subscriber acquisition and toward profitability strategies, such as price increases (with several rounds in 2024-2025), and the strict enforcement of password sharing.
These giants also invest in live events, exclusive premieres, and ancillary features which are additional functionalities that improve the main content delivery, such as offline viewing (downloading content), and interactive experiences (live polls, Q&A sessions).
Niche and Specialty Services
In 2025, niche streaming services like Crunchyroll for anime, Shudder for horror, BritBox for British TV shows, and Mubi for indie, arthouse, and experimental films, proved their resilience in the face of the giants by targeting passionate and underserved audiences.
According to Antenna's report, the number of users of specialty and niche streaming services is still increasing, but there are indications showing that the pace of this growth is starting to fall.
Live Streaming and Sports
Live content, especially sports, has become a great customer retention tool, with fans continuing to access services active to avoid missing events.
Check out the top-most-watched sports globally today
But streaming platforms go way beyond sports to produce ‘must-keep’ moments, branching out into live events such as concerts, award ceremonies, and reality reunions.
Content Bundling to Combat Fragmentation
Bundling has become the industry's main tool for customer acquisition and retention in 2025 due to streaming fragmentation, as customers alternate between several providers.
Intra-company combos (Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+, Paramount+/Showtime) continue to be highly effective at reducing the loss of subscribers, but cross-company and distributor partnerships have skyrocketed due to their convenience and cost reduction, for instance, Disney+/Hulu/Max or Netflix/Max partnerships.
Challenges and Opportunities for Streaming Platforms
As streaming services evolve, platforms face both saturation and room for innovation, which will involve addressing a number of serious challenges, including:
1. Content oversaturation
Users frequently feel overloaded by the vast amount of content released each year, which makes finding the right TV show or movie more difficult and, as a result, lowers interest.
Solution:
AI-driven personalization and effective recommendation systems to keep viewers interested
Eliminate shows that do poorly and concentrate on long-term content plans.
2. Licensing and copyright
Movie studios are renting out their shows and movies to more than one service or sharing rights in order to increase their revenue, which can frustrate viewers. This is because what’s available changes depending on where they live.
In addition, streaming platforms are trying to stop people from sharing passwords too often and tackling piracy to minimize their revenue losses.
Solution:
Provide things like games, live events, or special types of shows
Look for smart partnerships or mergers.
Final Word
Ever since streaming platforms hit the market, they have gained huge popularity, which today is becoming harder to achieve due to the overabundance of content.
To be able to continue evolving, they should leverage cutting-edge tools such as AI personalization and interactive media, while simultaneously adopting smart business models such as hybrid monetization and strategic bundles.
