Can you profit from families bingeing on TV box sets?
not so long ago, you had to nip to the video store to rent big blockbuster films.
You paid a few pounds to take the tape home to watch on your VHS player. A few days later, you’d rewind and return it to the store.
How our viewing habits have changed. these days, we can watch films on our tVs, laptops or smartphones wherever we are in the world.
So- called internet streaming allows you to watch movies or listen to music online without having to download a large file onto your computer.
And instead of handing over cash to rent each movie, you can typically pay as little as £6 a month for unlimited access to the provider’s library, which often contains thousands of films and tV series.
the convenience and relative low cost of streaming services is causing their popularity to surge.
netflix — with fans signing up to view such popular series as the Crown — has 98.8 million customers worldwide, up from 81.5 million a year ago. An estimated 6.5 million of these are from Britain.
Indeed, nearly a third of households in Britain subscribe to one of the three biggest streaming services: netflix, Amazon or now tV, which is owned by Sky.
Streaming songs and music albums is also popular, with around 100 million people worldwide signed up to major providers such as Spotify, tidal or Apple Music.
As streaming takes over from DVDs, CDs and vinyl, there are opportunities for investors to profit.
to cash in on netflix’s meteoric rise, look to Scottish Mortgage Investment trust, says Ben Yearsley, of Shore Financial Planning. the fund, which invests £1.87 in every £100 in the California-based firm, has turned £10,000 into £31,080 in five years.
Polar Capital technology trust is another fund profiting from video streaming, says Jason Hollands, of fund supermarket tilney.
the specialist technology fund invests £8.20 of every £100 in Google, the owners of Google Play Music, which is available in 65 countries and gives customers access to 40 million songs for £9.99 a month.
Samsung has recently made Google Play Music its default music player on its smartphones.
Another of Polar’s major stock picks is tencent, one of the world’s biggest internet companies behind Amazon, Google and Facebook.
Even though it’s only two years old, Joox, tencent’s music streaming service, has already eclipsed rivals Apple and Spotify in Asia, accounting for more than half of downloads in Indonesia, Hong Kong, thailand and Malaysia. McKinsey and Co, a leading global consultant, says there is a ‘ huge potential’ in Asia. It expects digital music subscribers in Asia to grow 15 pc a year until 2020.
Polar Capital invests £2.40 in every £100 in Shenzhen-based tencent and has turned £10,000 into £23,506 in the past five years.
Internet giant Amazon launched a movie streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, in Britain in 2014.
Customers can access exclusive tV series, such as the Grand tour, Jeremy Clarkson’s top Gear rival show. It also allows viewers to stream a variety of blockbuster movies. A subscription costs £5.99 a month, or £7.99 if you want a quick delivery service from the Amazon store. Amazon also has a music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited. It offers listeners access to 40 million songs for £ 9.99 a month, or £ 7.99 a month for Amazon Prime members. Savers looking to cash in on this expected boom should look at Baillie Gifford Global Managed, which is recommended by stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown. Its top stock pick is Amazon and has turned £10,000 into £17,530 in five years.
Disney launched a streaming service, called DisneyLife, around 18 months ago. It allows animation fans unlimited access to the Disney Channel, movies such as toy Story and Finding nemo and film scores for £4.99 a month.
Sophie Muller, of EQ Investors, tips Ruffer total Return for savers interested in Disney’s success.
the fund invests £1.15 in every £100 in Disney and has returned £13,070 from £10,000 in five years.