Cutting the Cord: Next year will bring even more streaming options

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Cord cutting, what is on the horizon? Cord cutting here for television fans. As streaming services open the digital landscape to televised content, cable providers are having to compete with a growing technological trend which is reducing their marketplace.

Streaming video had a blockbuster year in 2015 for everyone from full-fledged cord cutters to those who supplement what they watch on cable or satellite with Net-delivered offerings.

Expect that trend to pick up steam in 2016 with subscription video services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu gaining viewers while pay TV's hold on U.S. homes — currently at about 83% — continues to wane a percentage point or two, from 100 million homes to 98.9 million, analysts estimate.

Here are some predictions for the streaming video arena in the coming year:

• Netflix will remain dominant. In 2015, Netflix pushed past the 40 million mark in the U.S. and now has 42 million paid U.S. streaming subscribers, and a total of 69 million globally. The streaming-TV leader has nearly twice as many original series planned for 2016 — 30 compared with 2015's 16. Newcomers are expected to include Marvel's Luke Cage, a companion series to this year's series Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Netflix also has 10 movies in production. Also in 2016, its deal with Disney will bring The Avengers and Star Wars film franchises to the service, although Star Wars: The Force Awakens, won't hit Netflix immediately because it first goes to Starz under a deal with Disney that is about to end.

• Other top names will pick up their games. Amazon is also increasing its lineup of original series. Its well-received The Man in the High Castle earned a renewal after a successful November. It has discounted subscriptions to apps from Showtime and others as part of its $99-per-year Prime service. Amazon and Hulu, which has joined Netflix and Amazon as a creator of its own original content, will retain their solid spots as Nos. 2 and 3 in streaming subscriptions. The top three services have "too much momentum and (there's) too much ground to be made up by alternatives," said Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates.

Still, recent entrants such as HBO Now and Showtime "are attractive services for non-sports viewers looking to cobble together a viewing experience," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst at the Leichtman Research Group.

In fact, analysts at The Diffusion Group note that usage of stand-alone HBO Now combined with the HBO Go app, which requires pay-TV authentication, would put HBO in the top three — a sign that individual direct-to-consumer offerings can succeed.

• More Net video players will emerge. Look for new entrants to join HBO Now and Showtime, among pay-TV channels that will opt to stream directly to consumers. Some pay-TV providers themselves will offer streaming services, too. Comcast's Stream service, launched this summer in Boston and expected to go nationwide in 2016, lets Xfinity Internet customers pay $15 monthly to stream a bundle of local and national networks, as well as HBO, on devices. "There will be a flood of a new generation of OTT services, with many offered by large players — pay-TV providers and content producers,” Sappington said.

This will be driven in part by Nielsen's ability in 2016 to better measure viewership of so-called over-the-top (OTT) content, says The Diffusion Group's Alan Wolk. "Once OTT views are measured, no one has any reason to hold it back, in fact, they have every reason to push forward — more views equal higher ratings for networks and more bandwidth" used on Internet services, he says.

• Sony will expand its PlayStation Vue pay-TV service. The consumer electronics giant began operating its own streaming-TV service in March, starting at $50 monthly for more than 50 channels including local CBS, Fox, NBC and Telemundo stations, along with CNBC, Fox News, USA, TBS and USA. Missing? Disney-owned channels such as ABC and ESPN.

So far the service is available in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, L.A., New York, Miami, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay area. Sony will expand to more cities "to see if their current result is driven by the current markets they are in," Sappington said.

There is some disagreement at The Diffusion Group about this one, with Wolk and colleague Joel Espelien expecting Sony to fold the project. But the research firm's co-founder and president, Michael Greeson, thinks Sony will do a makeover instead. "This was a poorly conceived effort from the beginning. It’s just a full-on traditional pay-TV service delivered over broadband — hardly innovative or uniquely compelling," he said. "I don’t think it will die in 2016, but you may see the strategy changed dramatically as Sony comes to term with poor uptake."

"Cutting the Cord" is a regular column covering Net TV and ways to get it. If you have suggestions or questions, contact Mike Snider via e-mail at msnider@usatoday.com. And follow him on Twitter: @MikeSnider.