Week 5 - Too Many Streaming Services



What do you do when you get home after a long day at work or school? After my daily responsibilities are done, I collapse on the couch and look for respite in various forms of entertainment. It might be a game, a puzzle, or a book. If you're like me, you're probably in the 74% of Americans who use a subscription-based video streaming service (note the word "use" rather than "pay for" to account for password sharing).

As of 2017, Netflix alone had more annual subscribers than 95% of cable providers combined, and this disparity continues to increase as consumers abandon their convoluted cable packages in favor of more mobile, personalized Streaming Video On Demand. Instead of being locked into an annual contract with channels you don't watch and equipment that takes up space, people can search for an online carrier and pay month-to-month. There are no ads and you can watch whenever, wherever you want. Netflix has a decidedly powerful business model that has become exponentially lucrative, spending billions of dollars a year on content.

Over the last decade, other media companies have caught wind of Netflix's massive success and flocked to the online consumer market. As of February 2020, there are upwards of twenty distinct streaming services, with four more slated to launch this year. They carry the benefits of cordless entertainment and appeal to various niche audiences, but I worry that these providers will continue to narrow their scope until they are essentially individually priced TV channels. The medium of television was having a Golden Age with innovative shows like Breaking Bad, American Horror Story, and The Good Place. I would like to see that continue, but I worry that all these exclusivity agreements are going to stifle creators' ability to have a wide platform. It is already so easy to isolate yourself in a media echo-chamber, and cultural connection will only get more difficult if we are trapped behind various paywalls.

So, in the spirit of human connection, just go to Putlocker.

Comments

  1. Ryan GibbonsFebruary 22, 2020 at 2:41 PM

    I certainly share your concern on the sudden flood of streaming services, although perhaps only temporarily. Right now, it appears this influx is from companies trying to get a foothold in the market, not necessarily to make money now. Perhaps in a few years, many of the services might drop off if they can’t attract enough viewers. Now I’m no economist (thank god), but this is one possibility I can imagine happening. Maybe they’ll just specialize, and we’ll get Cable 2.0.

    Cheers,
    -Ryan

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  2. BGFebruary 23, 2020 at 10:10 PM

    One of my main concerns as a consumer is that having all these subscription services will end up costing as much as cable anyway. There's Hulu, and Netflix, and Disney+, and HBO, etc. In addition, I feel like the amount of content available is overwhelming. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who spends forever just looking for something good to watch on all of these platforms. Also, I like what you said about Putlocker because I'm often torn between the want to support the production of quality content and the reality of being a broke college student.

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