How Scale Became Streaming's Profitability Problem
Source: Evan Shapiro: Media War & Peace
The economics of streaming have inverted the logic that made traditional media empires valuable—size now creates margin pressure rather than competitive moat. Netflix's pivot to profitability through price increases and ad tiers shows that subscriber growth alone was a loss-making strategy. The industry is fragmenting into smaller, more focused services (Apple TV+, Paramount+, Disney+) because the per-user math at massive scale still doesn't work. This is forcing consolidation and content licensing deals that resemble the old media ecosystem more than the direct-to-consumer revolution promised.