A new Deloitte survey finds that 55 percent of American households subscribe to at least one video streaming service and are spending $2.1 billion a month. With most subscribing to get access to exclusive and original content is a major factor for signing up according to the report. Streaming is on the rise as reports shows that the percentage of American households that subscribe to a streaming service has grown from 49 percent last year. Streaming giant Netflix, has seen its share price double in the past year, which is why it will spend almost $8 billion on new content for its customers in 2018. Amazon has reportedly committed $5 billion a year to fund the growth of its content library. Traditional media companies are trying to keep up and market their own direct-to-consumer offerings. Disney recently reorganized its corporate struc- ture, creating a new unit focused on its upcoming streaming services.
The major issue facing media companies that are late to market with their new streaming services is that it is saturated with over 200 streaming video-on- demand services currently available for U.S. customers.
The Federal, Ontario and Quebec governments say they will spend $200 million to help fund research into 5G wireless technology, the next-genera- tion networks with download speeds 100 times faster than current ones can handle. We live in a world where technology is moving at the speed of light, and now it is time to have our networks do the same as we access media and informa- tion on our mobile devices and look to more demands on our current wireless systems abilities to meet the needs for things like cars that drive themselves. If you are someone who thinks tech- nology is moving too fast, this is your wake-up call, because a new 5G wireless network is coming and promises to transform our lives by connecting nearly everything to a new, much faster, reliable wireless system.
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MARCH 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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