Radio was worried about tv, tv was worried about cable, cable was worried about streaming services. Now streaming services have a worry.
Premium video services are increasingly worried about social media sites, such as TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Twitch, where content is generated by users for free.
They are seeing that viewing time from these free apps are siphoning away hours of time, especially from younger demographics. Thus, are considered a serious threat to some streaming services that charge for a subscription.
It’s only one part of an emerging arms race for Americans’ leisure time. Fortunately for streaming services, many competitors for users’ time such as tourism and live sports and concerts have been hit hard by COVID-19. Some may never recover.
So, the threat is there, we can only wait and see the impact.