No not those kind of streamers. We’re talking Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+… these days the list goes on and on. There have been some new developments in the Streaming Wars in the last few weeks that give a glimpse of what may lie ahead.

Contested Battleground

The stakes are about as high as they could be: “The next 18 months are going to determine where this business goes for the next 20 years.” -Steve Mosko, CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment.

For the first time, the notoriously tight-lipped Netflix has released metrics about its international viewership, in part to turn Wall Street’s attention away from the now very competitive U.S. market. (Turns out that more than half of the company’s subscribers and 90 percent of the company’s growth is coming from outside the U.S.)

One thing that’s crystal clear is the growing role that the streamers are playing in the entertainment ecosystem. Want proof? Take a look at this year’s Golden Globe slate where Netflix netted the most nominations (17) of any programmer, and newcomer Apple TV+, which launched just last month, even walked away with a few nods.

Licensing Lightweights

But despite increasingly dominating screenshare, properties originating on streaming platforms have had only sporadic consumer product strength so far.

• Licensed goods based on “Stranger Things” got prime placement at Target and Hot Topic in the show’s second season
• Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” has an official site devoted to merchandise – though we have to mention there’s a fair amount of “inspired by” period goods filtered in among the licensed products.
• Then there’s the PR (and soon to be product) explosion set off by Baby Yoda. (Yes, we know that’s not his name, but we’ve given up on correcting people!)

One thing’s for sure, with Disney, the world’s largest licensor, now a streamer itself, the bar is going to be swiftly raised when it comes to the merchandising of content originating on streaming platforms.