Over the Top: The Rise of Streaming and the Television Industry Value Chain

During the first quarter of the 21st century, the TV industry underwent rapid vertical consolidation. For decades, the industry had been divided into three basic levels: production (i.e., the studios that identified on-screen talent and facilitated the making of content); distribution (i.e., the TV channels that carried the content); and platform (i.e., the cable TV or satellite providers who brought the content to viewers). In the 2010s, however, an increasing number of companies in that value chain had begun to play on multiple levels. Streaming services such as Netflix were producing their own high-quality content, and both traditional TV channels and production companies (e.g., NBC, Paramount, and Disney) were circumventing the conventional value chain and building platforms to sell their content directly to viewers. This case uses a small set of examples—including the streaming service Netflix, the sports channel ESPN, and the movie channel AMC—to explore the economics of this new verticalized TV industry. It asks students how companies can create value and maximize profitability in TV.