流媒体革命正在“洗劫”你的钱包

Viewers are living in a golden age of TV, spoilt by more must-watch shows, films and live sport than at any time in broadcasting history, but the cost of getting it all has risen to £2,500 a year, leaving some entertainment fans wondering if they can afford the streaming revolution.

如今电视的黄金时代已经到来，观众沉溺在比广播时代更多更精彩的电视节目、电影和体育直播中无法自拔。但观看这些节目的成本已经上升到每年2500英镑（约等于21015元人民币），这让一些娱乐爱好者开始担心他们是否能负担得起这样的流媒体革命。

Viewers who can’t bear to miss out on the best TV on offer – from Premier League and Champions League football to dramas such as The Crown and Peaky Blinders, and blockbuster franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel – will have to find about £200 a month on average.

那些不愿意错过好看电视节目的观众——比如英超联赛和冠军联赛足球、电视剧《王冠》和《浴血黑帮》等，以及星球大战和漫威等大片——平均每月必须付约200英镑（约等于1679元人民币）。

“The public perception has been that these services are cheap,” says Tom Harrington, head of television at Enders Analysis. “And they certainly were. But the cost is now quickly transitioning from what is for many an automatic and then forgotten regular discretionary spend, to a noticeable chunk leaving their account.”

Enders Analysis的电视业务主管汤姆•哈林顿(Tom Harrington)表示:“公众一直认为这些服务很便宜。”过去确实是这样。但现在，这一成本正迅速转变，从对许多人来说是无需考虑的、易被遗忘的、常规可自由支配的支出，转变为一笔从账户里流出的巨大支出。”

Enders Analysis estimates that consumers have the opportunity to access 130,000 hours of content from streamers and video-on-demand offerings, compared with a comparatively measly 30,000 hours as recently as 2016.

Enders Analysis估计，消费者可以从流媒体和视频点播服务中获得13万小时的内容，而在2016年，这一数字还仅为3万小时。

The global streaming phenomenon has resulted in the launch of an unprecedented number of services, mostly paid-for – from Netflix and Amazon to Disney+ and tiers of ITV’s latest effort, ITVX – that compete alongside pay-TV providers such as Sky and BT and the license fee-funded BBC for a share of household budgets that are being pushed to breaking point.

全球流媒体化的现象带来了前所未有的丰富服务的推出，其中大部分是付费服务——从Netflix、亚马逊到迪士尼+，以及ITV的最新产品，ITVX——它们与付费电视提供商，如天空电视台(Sky)、英国电信(BT)，以及由许可费资助的英国广播公司(BBC)争夺家庭预算的份额，而这些预算正被推向崩溃的边缘。

As the market has boomed, the cost, which includes the average monthly price of a broadband and phone package, has increased by almost a quarter in the last three years, from £2,040 in 2019.

随着市场的蓬勃发展，包括宽带和电话套餐的月平均支出在内的费用，在过去三年里从2019年的2040英镑（约等于17126元人民币）上涨了近四分之一。

Ampere Analysis, which compiled the figures, says that the increase is mostly to do with the proliferation of new services as the streaming wars hit their peak. However, UK households are now also facing inflation-busting increases in their home broadband, phone and pay-TV packages of up to 10%.

收集这些数据的安培分析公司(Ampere Analysis)表示，这种增长主要与流媒体战争达到顶峰时新服务的激增有关。然而，英国家庭现在也面临家庭宽带、电话和付费电视套餐高达10%的通胀增长。

With inflation running at a 30-year high, and already soaring energy prices being pushed higher by the war in Ukraine, the rising cost of everything from food to petrol is forcing households to tighten their belts.

随着通货膨胀率达到30年来的最高水平，乌克兰战争又推高了本已飙升的能源价格，从食品到汽油，所有物品的价格都在上涨，这迫使家庭只能勒紧裤腰带过日子。

The TV and video services that saved the UK from lockdown boredom – Britons spent 40% of their waking hours stuck at home watching TV – are no longer being viewed as the sacrosanct household essentials they were at the height of the Covid pandemic, which fueled a record rise in global subscribers.

电视和电子服务拯救了在疫情隔离期间的无聊的英国人——他们40%的清醒时间都呆在家里看电视。但现在电视也不再被视为不可替代的家庭必需品，尽管在新冠疫情期间，它推动了全球订阅者创纪录激增。

The number of UK streaming subscribers increased by more than 8 million in 2020. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

2020年，英国的流媒体用户数量增加了800多万。

And the financial war of attrition initiated by Netflix offering a low-cost, binge-watching model to build global scale – then aped by all rivals – has become a hunt for sustainable profitability, with consumers paying the price.

由Netflix引发的财务消耗战，即通过提供一种低成本、连续观看的模式来建立全球规模——随后被竞争对手们争相效仿，已变成一种对可持续盈利能力的追求，而为此买单的则是消费者们。

Disney+ increased its prices by a third last year. Photograph: Disney/AP

迪士尼在去年将价格提高了三倍

On March 11th, Netflix raised its prices in the UK and Ireland for the second time in two years, making for a 22% increase in the price of its most popular plan, which is now £10.99 a month, over that period. And last year Disney+ upped its cost by a third after adding more content for subscribers.

3月11日，Netflix两年来第二次提高了在英国和爱尔兰的价格，其最受欢迎的套餐价格在此期间上涨了22%，现在售价每月10.99英镑（约等于92元人民币）。去年，在为用户提供更多内容后，Disney+将价格提高了三倍。

Netflix says that price rises are the cost of funding its swelling content budget, which has risen from $7bn to $18bn annually in the last four years, as it fights to maintain its position as the world’s favorite streaming service.

Netflix表示，价格上涨是为其不断膨胀的内容预算提供资金。过去4年，该公司为维持其全球最受欢迎的流媒体服务的地位，内容预算从每年70亿美元（约等于445.6亿元人民币）升至180亿美元（约等于1145.8亿元人民币）。

“The streaming market has been supported by debt-funded, loss-leading, loss-making models,” says Harrington. “Netflix entered the market and set a budget price and everyone has had to come in under that to compete. You had all these profitable content companies, pay-TV and linear-TV broadcasters who had to move into streaming, and it is not as profitable. Now they have to start looking at value, and customers are going to be continually asked to pay more until these things make real money.”

“一直以来，流媒体市场的经济发展离不开债务融资、亏本定价、亏损制作（饥饿营销），”哈灵顿（Harrington）说。“在Netflix进入市场后，它设定了一个预算价格，然后所有人都不得不以更低的价格来竞争。所有这些盈利的内容公司，付费电视和有线电视广播公司都不得不转向流媒体，然而利润并不高。现在，他们开始关注盈利，所以用户将不断被要求支付更多，直到这些公司可以赚到钱。”

Until now, Netfilx has let password sharing run rampant as breakneck growth outweighed the need to crackdown on families and friends being able to watch Netflix for a few pounds. 

此前，网飞允许共享密码这种操作遍地开花，用户亲友仅需要几英镑就可以共享其网飞账号。共享密码刺激下，用户数量飞涨，公司打压这种操作弊大于利。

The drive for revenue, and the squeeze on customers, was highlighted last week when Netflix began its long-expected crackdown on a huge subscriber perk: password sharing.

但就在上周，Netflix终于开始打压共享密码这种大型薅羊毛行为，此举凸显了流媒体正在加强对收益的追求和对顾客的压榨。

In a blogpost on Wednesday, Chengyi Long, director of product innovation at Netflix, said the practice was “impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members”. The company announced a trial in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru charging between £1 and £2.50 to allow subscribers to add people from outside their household to their account.

在周三的一篇博文中，Netflix产品创新总监龙承毅（Chengyi Long）表示，这种做法“影响了我们为会员投资优秀新电视剧和电影的能力”。该公司宣布在智利、哥斯达黎加和秘鲁进行试点，允许用户支付1-2.5英镑（约等于8-21元人民币）来将家庭以外的人添加到自己的账户中。

The crackdown could add millions to Netflix’s bottom line. The research firm Magid has estimated that about a third of Netflix users share their password with someone else. Netflix’s decision also means, however, that many of those “borrowing” passwords will now have to decide if they want to add another cost to their monthly outgoings.

这次禁令可能会给Netflix增加数百万美元的利润。研究公司Magid估计，约有三分之一的Netflix用户与他人分享密码。然而，Netflix的决定也意味着，许多“借用”密码的人现在必须决定是否要每月增加额外的支出。

“The pandemic was good if you were a subscription service,” says Richard Broughton, an analyst at Ampere. “People were stuck at home and even those with their finances under pressure found home entertainment a must-have. But now there is a cost-of-living crunch on the horizon. With so many pay-TV and streaming products, I think we will see consumers seriously assessing their monthly outgoings. It will be about winning that battle to be seen as essential entertainment.”

安培(Ampere)分析师理查德•布劳顿(Richard Broughton)表示:“如果你提供的是订阅服务，那么疫情会是件好事。”“因为人们都被困在家里，即使是那些面临经济压力的人也必须要有家庭娱乐。但现在，生活成本的危机即将来临。面对如此多的付费电视节目和流媒体产品，我觉得消费者们会仔细计算他们的每月支出费用。似乎更日常的娱乐活动会在这场战争中胜出。

discretionary adj. 自由决定的，酌情决定的；代表委托人全权进行投资的

例：

You may be eligible for a discretionary grant for your university course. 读大学课程可能会有资格获得学校自行决定是否发放的助学金。

proliferation n. （数量的）激增，剧增；（细胞、组织、有机体的）繁殖，增生；大量

例：Nuclear proliferation has returned to centre stage in international affairs.核扩散又成了国际事务中的中心议题。

rampant adj. 泛滥的，猖獗的；（植物）过于繁茂的，疯长的；（人，行为）狂暴的，极端的；（纹章上所绘的动物）用后腿站立的，跃立的

例：Unemployment is now rampant in most of Europe. 在欧洲的大部分地区，失业问题难以控制。