Why Multiple Reports Conclude 2020 was "The Year Of Streaming"

PALM BEACH, Fla., Jan. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Very quickly, last February 2020, after the term "social distancing" acquired worldwide household recognition, 'binging' and 'streaming' also became every day terms. By March alone, the numbers indicated that we quickly experienced a 30.7% increase in streaming sessions, one month 'in' to the pandemic. It has continued to rise, month by month since then. The global pandemic has permanently transformed both streaming behavior and social media. A report by Apptopia and Braze looked at all the major streaming services and apps and came up with an intriguing nugget. Of course all the 'usual suspects' had increased usage and revenues, but YouTube stood out… for a specific reason. In their report they say that YouTube Kids is the most used streaming app, even more than You Tube itself. The report said: "We Can't Get Enough YouTube . While new competitors can carve out success, the financial side of the mobile streaming market is still ruled by YouTube. One of the first in the game, YouTube remains a world leader in revenue generation via mobile. Like a Kid in an App Store .YouTube kids is a time-passing, educating, give-me-a-break savior for parents. Whether on a smartphone or table, parents are putting YouTube kids on for their children and letting them soak it in for long periods of time."   Active Companies in the markets today include Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. (OTCQB: GRMM), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), fuboTV Inc. (NYSE: FUBO), Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA).

People are spending most of their time indoors during the global pandemic and much of their time is spent on digital platforms. Though YouTube Kids is not the most downloaded app of 2020 but among all other prominent video streaming apps, this is where users are spending most of their time.   No exact figures were mentioned in the report but it showed that YouTube Kids was watched more than all other 34 analyzed services like Netflix, Twitch, Amazon's Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+ and even YouTube, the parent app. 

Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. (OTCQB: GRMM) BREAKING NEWS:  Grom Social Enterprises Backlog Reaches $6.5 Million in New Business for 2021 - Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. (Grom the "Company", "we", "us", or "our"), the developer of Grom Social, a leading social media platform for kids and original children's entertainment content provider, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Top Draw Animation, and its ability to transition from a studio-based model to a home-based model in a 48 hour period, allowed the company to continue production on then ongoing projects resulting in a minimum impact on revenue during the initial COVID months. Total revenue for 2021 from Grom's animation subsidiary stands at $6.5 million, and places it close to the $7.0 million pre-COVID booked business going into 2020 and well ahead of the same period in 2019. Unused capacity remains for the second half of the year, which the Company expects to fulfill with the renewal of existing projects/series, as well as new projects that have already undergone successful testing valued in excess of $2.5 million. Due to confidentiality, the partners and project names cannot be disclosed.

"This significantly allows Grom to get back to pre-COVID production levels and overall revenue projections for 2021, following delays of up to 9 months by major studio clients" said Darren Marks, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Grom Social Enterprises, "and is testament to the quality and reliability of all our platforms and to the success of our universal strategies in the kids space."

Marks continued, "The overall strength of our subsidiaries continues to provide a meaningful revenue base with attractive gross margins as we begin to market our exciting COPPA-compliant kids app, Grom Social, that offers solutions to many of today's on-line issues plaguing Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok, among others. Given these challenges, we believe there is a significant opportunity to accelerate our user growth and efficiently monetize the platform in the near-term, while ultimately, driving long-term, sustainable value for our shareholders."   For more information about Grom Social Enterprises please visit https://gromsocial.com/

Other recent developments in the Streaming / Social Media industries include:

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) recently revealed the ambitious next steps in its global streaming expansion at its 2020 Investor Day, with new details on the future of its direct-to-consumer services Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, a first look at its upcoming international general entertainment content brand, Star, and previews of an exceptional slate of all-new content.

Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company, and Bob Iger, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board, led the virtual event, which included presentations from leaders of the company's content and distribution teams, along with financial updates from Christine McCarthy, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Lowell Singer, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) recently announced it will post its fourth-quarter 2020 financial results and business outlook on its investor relations website on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at approximately 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. At that time, the company will issue a brief advisory release via newswire containing a link to the fourth-quarter 2020 financial results and letter to shareholders on its website.

A video interview with Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings, co-CEO & Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, Chief Financial Officer Spence Neumann, COO & Chief Product Officer Greg Peters and VP, IR & Corporate Development Spencer Wang will be available at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The discussion will be moderated by Kannan Venkateshwar, Barclays, with questions submitted via email. 

fuboTV Inc. (NYSE: FUBO), the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform, recently announced it has executed a binding letter of intent to acquire sports betting and interactive gaming company Vigtory, and expects to launch a sportsbook before the end of the year.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to the execution of a definitive acquisition agreement and the satisfaction of certain closing conditions. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.  fuboTV intends to leverage Vigtory's sportsbook platform and digital gaming assets, and its consumer-driven betting technology, to develop a frictionless betting experience for fubo's customers. Additionally, Vigtory has been in discussions for market access agreements in the eastern part of the United States and currently has a deal secured in Iowa through Casino Queen.

Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA) (NASDAQ: DISCK) recently announced it would be launching its own streaming channel in January 2021.  Since every other streaming service seems to have adopted the naming convention of adding a "+" to their existing channel, Discovery will do the competition one better and also add a lower case "d" to the name. The new service will be called discovery+. 

Discovery has partnered with Verizon Communications to make the new streaming service available to 50 million households at launch. Certain Verizon customers will get a free one-year subscription, the same kind of assistance that helped launch Walt Disney's Disney+ service into the stratosphere.   The service is already being rolled out internationally beginning in the U.K., Ireland, and India, and will eventually be available in 25 countries. Discovery says when it launches in the U.S. it will have the largest library of content of any new streaming service.

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