Video streaming goes from gold rush to yard sale

First, a confession. I have not watched a single episode of Game of Thrones... since season 1, not just the last one. But of course, most of the world has.
Hotstar, which exclusively airs the show online in India, reported a sixfold jump in viewers for the final season’s first episode. The numbers have likely stayed strong since as viewers stay riveted, undaunted by the stray coffee cup blunders, and Hotstar laughs all the way to the bank.
But what if one or more of the 30-odd video-on-demand services in India also had the rights to air GoT? Or one of the cable companies or telecom companies? Not such a fun thought for Hotstar, is it? 
However, for a majority of the other VOD companies, sharing their content is slowly becoming the last resort to stay afloat. These companies started out with the same dream—of becoming the next Netflix—and went the same route, spending heavily to develop the next blockbuster. Video streaming was meant to kill cable TV, like in the US, with subscribers the king. But it blindly hurtled into the same stumbling blocks that buffeted journalism: the king wants free content and ads don’t help.
Sample this: less than 5% of the 325 million Indians who saw online videos last year were willing to pay for content. And whatever little comes in from that will line the pockets of the top 3-4 players. Digital advertising? Rs 5 per user per year! Frankly, one is more likely to find much more than that on a morning walk.
With paltry earnings from traditional streams, the likes of AltBalaji and SonyLIV are now licensing their content to “aggregator” platforms such as JioTV or MX Player. Content companies hope that sacrificing exclusive content, sometimes at huge discounts, will increase reach. The aggregators bundle this content and offer it for free to retain users.
All this, in effect, takes us back to the cable TV model, back to square one.
So what’s next? Does this shift in power dynamics herald the coming of a new kingmaker? And if so, will the subscriber remain king? 

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