Back to basics: the future of streaming
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Having a teenage boy nowadays is quite interesting because of different reasons. Mainly: my son is a geek, just like me. Now, I believe there are different tribes among the geeks. I have a great ability to know people of different fandoms and understand them without necessarily being part of their tribe. My son, on the other hand, is a hardcore gamer. His head saves a lot of videogames data. It never ceases to amaze me. This information is not just about the gameplay per se, but also about the developers, the soundtracks, how the game was design, et cetera.
Besides, having a geek partner fuels the conversations. H possess a big amount of information regards music and films. He usually gives us fun facts when we’re watching movies or series.
This combination helped us to talk a lot the other day during breakfast. You’ll see, we live in a time where the excess of information is the constant. Not so long ago I read the news that HBO will merge with Discovery +, right after the downfall on Netflix subscribers on Q1 of 2022. It would seem that streaming golden era is coming to an end. There are so many on demand channels, that having each one of them is difficult to afford. I do not grasp how streaming business model works, but it is clear to me that sustaining content creation with only a subscription must be hard. Netflix is showing it by announcing upcoming ads on the platform. Are we returning to paid television, just on demand?
For me, it is clear for a long time now, Netflix’s interest is in quantity rather than quality. At the beginning, Netflix’s original content stamp meant well-thought content. Today, it means nothing to me. Honestly, be updated with everything trending is impossible. Most of the time each new product of a streaming platform most be taken cautiously since we don’t know if it will succeed or not. A recent example is the cancellation of First Kill, Netflix’s teen series based on a short story of V. E. Schwab. Regardless that on opening weekend the series was watched by millions, and ranked on the platform’s top 10 on many countries, there will beno second season. It’s not the first time we encounter this: a series with a big fandom is cancelled regardless how many people watch and enjoy it (I can think about Sense 8, the failed live action attempt of cult anime Cowboy Bebop that at least gave us a new soundtrack by Yoko Kanno or The Dark Crystal series that was stunningly beautiful).
It’s nothing new for my boyfriend, my kid and me that today’s content amount available is over my ability to keep up. Maybe that’s why I prefer catching up slowly or, better yet, watch things that are over (like Downton Abbey). MCU’s universe boom is the perfect example. When we had one or two movies per year, I had chance to get excited about the big puzzle that was slowly forming. In 2022 alone, we will have over 70 hours of Marvel content between series and movies, and it bores me to dead trying to keep uo with so much content that is now upside down (Wanda’s multiverse has nothing to do with Loki’s multiverse proposal, for instance). I’d rather catch up with my never-ending TBR pile.
If that’s not enough, we have the licensing issue. We need to keep up with which platform is allowed to stream what movie. I’ve learnt that the bad way this year. Since I guide a book/movie club, I must check constantly what platform streams this month’s movie. When we read Shakespeare to watch 10 things I hate about you, I found out that it was no longer on Netflix, and was now on Disney+. There have been movies that I have to rent on YouTube since the movies that I saw at the beginning of the year were on this or that platform, now were nowhere to be found when my club gathered.
The so-called licensing hell, as G says, is a godless land. Marvel’s universe had suffered it with Spiderman. Now that Paramount+ launched new Star Trek content, the complet franchise had to leave Netflix to move to Parmount +. I’ve seen this happen a lot with anime. Cowboy Bebop was on licensing hell, apparently forever, until Netflix launched the (failed) live action last year. Before that, it was impossible to watch (legally) the legendary anime.
This hell has no respect whatsoever. Videogames have suffered it too: PT, short after being revealed as a playable teaser of a new Silent Hill piece, turned out to be cancelled although it was a project with big names such as Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro involved. Kojima’s differences with Konami studio led to the director’s departure. Short after, the teaser was announced as not compatible with the new Playstation catalogue and disappear from the online store. Nowadays it seems more like an urban legend, rather than something that truly existed.
Looking at this big picture I question myself: are we turning back to buying our cultural products? Music, movies, and series available today on streaming platforms could disappear from internet at any moment, if the platform declares bankruptcy, if there are licensing problems or just because it is not cheap to own every streaming platform. If you really love the product, should we buy it? Buying again CD’s, DVD’s and such, going back to videoclubs, is that the real future? I’m not sure, but at least for me, it’s more probable (and something I would float towards easily). What do you think?
