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They have already turned their attention outside of the US, with Latin America being one of the primary markets as the digital infrastructure has grown. PHOTOGRAPHY: Variety.com
These new players already have their attention outside of the U.S., with Latin America being one of the primary markets. Photo: Variety

New independent operators enter the streaming platforms war

Paramount+ or Audiomack are just some of the new players in the huge market poised for expansion in Latin America, Canada, and the UK.

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Paramount+ will debut as a new streaming platform in the United States, Latin America and Canada next March in search of a share of audiences in the war of streaming platforms that marks a new model of on-demand consumption.

ViacomCBS, through Paramount+, will have the Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CBS and MTV series, and the rights to Star Trek, looking for the family audience that Disney and Netflix have also targeted.

In music streaming, Max Escobar's role has recently been highlighted with the free platform Audiomack, a great favorite in Latin America with more than 100 million downloads. Its unique feature is allowing the sharing of songs among users. With the company, the promoter of concerts in Bronx clubs has managed to gather great international artists and a new way to generate trends.

Escobar is Dominican — full name, Maximo Souffrain Jr. — and has been able to capitalize on new Dominican artists.  

He was also vice president of the Latin division of Akon's Konvict Music record label.

"We have complete control of the songs that are on the list. In this sense, an advantage for those who start their career is the exposure they can count on," says Escobar. "For example, when an artist releases a single, we can send out a push notification, a message, to 30 million listeners saying that the song is out, so that's 30 million people who now know about your song, getting that promotion."

The approach is one that has been born out of the television and music consumption patterns of a world suffering from a pandemic. Investors have also keyed into the shift towards music and bet on its growth 

However, projections heed caution as people gradually return to their pre-confinement lives as the supply of streaming channels increases, but purchasing power decreases. Hence why many have turned their attention outside the United States, with Latin America being a prime market as the digital infrastructure has grown.

At the moment, they report a monopoly of up to 80% of the market owned by Netflix and a projection of up to 136 million potential subscribers to such services by the end of this year.

Alongside Netflix is the empire of Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and HBO Max. In music, Spotify, YouTube, and to a lesser extent, Bandcamp, reign supreme. It is a race that has just begun and to which competitors such as Discovery+ or SkyUK are still joining. It is expected that this is only the first phase, which also covers Canada, but could potentially be extended to other regions such as China.

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