How Will Theaters And Streaming Services Coexist After

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How Will Theaters And Streaming Services Coexist After The Pandemic?



There is so much happening with the digital transformation of media and entertainment, and it has only been accelerated by the pandemic. Home entertainment has been fueled by stay-at-home audiences. In the U.S., streaming subscriptions alone grew 50% in 2020. In the meantime, theaters have been pretty much shut down for almost a year. It’s like a massive natural experiment that nobody could have ever predicted. What will the results be, and specifically, how will theaters and streaming services coexist in a post-pandemic world?

Let me use a demand-side and supply-side analysis of facts and trends to make an informed prediction.

Demand: Changes in Consumer Behavior

The impossibility to go to the theaters has compelled consumers to watch movies, series, sports, and other entertainment at home, whether they like it or not. Those who don’t may get off their couches and flock to the theaters once COVID restrictions and fears ease.

This is not just a hunch. In China, where COVID cases are under control, there was a record box office during last week’s Lunar New Year, which signals that consumers may also show up in droves to the theaters in the U.S. and other markets. Now, once the cabin fever effect on theater demand subsides, how will post-pandemic demand for home vs. theater entertainment look like?

In a recent survey of 20,398 U.S. adults by What if Media Group, 20% of the respondents said they have no intention to return to the movie theaters once a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available, while another 10% said they are somewhat unlikely to return. What If Media Group’s CMO, Jordan Cohen, stated: "Our survey results reflect that while the demand for movie theater attendance is there, the pandemic has, for at least some Americans, perhaps forever changed the way they prefer to consume content, similar to what we have seen with the exacerbation of the shift to ecommerce."

Indeed, Cristel Russell, Marketing professor at Pepperdine’s Graziadio Business School, recently studied with her research colleagues the increasingly pervasive 2nd screen phenomenon, where consumers enjoy social media interactions as they watch TV. Interestingly, Russell thinks this phenomenon will also motivate some consumers to go to the theaters: “There will likely be many segments who want to retain the self-pacing of their entertainment consumption and will find the theater environment too restricting. But there will also be segments of the market that flock to the theaters in search of the sanctity of the pure, untouched experience.”

If these demand trends and observations materialize, there will be more delineated segments for both theater and streaming services to serve. The question then is how they can coexist to serve these market segments.

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