I am convinced one of the biggest challenges in streaming is the problem of “walled gardens”. As I wrote last month. the “walled garden problem” is legacy libraries with limited libraries and audiences locked into particular services, so publishers are unable to understand consumer preferences holistically across other services and platforms.
One challenge presented by “walled gardens” is a back-end problem, as reflected in the Disney+ bundle or AMC+ bundle: users may have one login that works across three different apps, but the user must log into each app separately to consume all content.
The other challenge is walled gardens all are smaller scale than free ad-supported TV services (FASTs) from connected TV (CTV) devicemakers like Roku and Amazon [1] or even YouTube (135MM connected device users per month). So the data on users that legacy media publishers intend to sell to advertisers both suffers from a less scale and a lack of a broader, more holistic understanding of the consumer beyond the “walled gardens”.
Two proposed solutions to “walled gardens” emerged from Walmart and YouTube last week, and they reflect both Walmart and YouTube smelling weakness in the "walled gardens" model.
The New York Times reported last week:
Walmart has held discussions with major media companies about including streaming entertainment in its membership service, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations, part of an effort to extend its relationship with customers ...