Illegal streaming as disruptive innovation : How the established companies within the television industry deal with potential disruptive innovations

Abstract

This thesis was written to examine how the established companies within the television industry in Norway deal with potential disruptive innovations. In this case the disruptive innovation is illegal streaming of sports, series and movies. This is common among the younger population, which is not the incumbents’ main target. In that way, illegal streaming can grow without them knowing it, and in worst case eventually push them out of the market. Especially when the users can “save” 900 NOK on sports or 300-400 NOK on series a month on the illegal market.

In order to analyze this, there were performed five semi-structured interviews with important players in the market. To map how the Internet-users relate to and use streaming, a survey was made and shared through social media. All of these can be found in the Appendix. The results from the survey shows that all of the respondents have used streaming, due to availability and that the price is low (or free). In general the illegal sites were used more than the Norwegian services, like Comoyo and CMore Play.

The interviews indicates that the established companies are doing measures to prevent loosing customers by making content available on several platforms, by making apps and adjusting to the habits people have. They are also monitoring the legal and illegal streaming market and encrypting their content. They do however not see the illegal streaming market as competitors, which is a bit frightening given that the survey indicates that these pages are used more than the ones they consider competitors. It seems like they don’t take them as seriously as they should. This trend can evolve fast and if it grows beyond the innovators-phase and over to early adopters, they can in principle loose over 500.000 customers and also 2 835.000.000 NOK a year.

Recommendations for the established companies are 1. Stop illegal streaming (basically impossible) 2. Keep the price low enough for people to choose them 3. Improve service – better payment solutions, quality, selection and availability. 4. A “package-deal” between the 5. Get eaten up services where the users can get discounts would be optimal.

The limitations of this thesis include: given only a few interviewees and a small amount of respondents (60) of the survey, the results from this thesis cannot be generalized to the population as a whole. Also, the analyze was conducted over a five- months period, which also make time a limitation. However, this thesis can be a good foundation for further work within this field.