The great shakeout

Streaming options for television and film have accelerated from the television screen to people’s smartphones and tablets. Suddenly, every corporation wants to reach the same level as streaming services like Netflix. Many big players such as investors in Hollywood and Silicon Valley are competing to sell people more entertainment over the internet as corporations will try to produce more films in the year 2019. This is only the beginning of the streaming revolution since Americans can now choose between Youtube, Amazon Prime, HBO, Hulu, Showtime, and many more.

As a result, this has become a multibillion dollar war for your attention and will continue to be so until someone ends up winning. Social networks such as Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook are investing more into videos, and are already streaming some television shows. Therefore, the old-line studio of Hollywood will unfortunately lose pay-TV subscribers in America. Most viewers are switching from expensive bundles of channels to online videos. Hence, the competition has, rather dramatically, become a battle for survival over the different streaming options.

According to Gady Epstein from the Economist, this whole streaming rush started when “Bob Iger, the boss of Disney, announced that it will stop selling many films to Netflix” because the Walt Disney Company decided that it will begin to launch a streaming service of their own in 2019. The same week John Landgraf, boss of FX, the Fox cable network that makes shows such as “Fargo” and “The Americans,” unveiled a commercial-free streaming option. Let’s not forget Warner Bros, who is currently making TV shows for a DC Entertainment streaming service that is expected to debut in 2018. All these big companies such as Disney, Warner Bros, and AMC are ready to get more involved in the “internet-TV business.”

“How many of these will people pay for?” asks Landgraf, who coined the term ‘peak TV,’ which is the new service that many people will start using. He worries that at some point there will be too many streaming services that will cause a great shakeout. Nonetheless, the tech giants like Netflix and Amazon have a head start in streaming customers with deep pockets since these two are loaded with revenue and the studios will struggle to catch up to the level that they are currently in. Landgraf sees this as ironic because studios and networks like these have helped make Netflix a giant by selling it their best TV shows and films. It is funny to see that these other studios and networks are trying to make a name for themselves while they are giving their best shows to another streaming service.

Overall, the evolution of entertainment has evolved into a gigantic never ending stream that is inevitable. Nowadays, it is not shocking to see children and adults glued to their technological device, because entertainment is quite addicting. Television shows, advertisements, and news run constantly both on television and on any mobile device with access to the internet. Large corporations will not risk their big profits but need to satisfy their clients so they will continue investing to remain on top of their competitors. One has to be mindful of how the process of streaming is more complex than it seems with each idea changing constantly to compete and be much better. Therefore, we should all be aware that streaming options will continue to increase and we should all try to find the option we are able to afford and like. Hence, the innovation of technological advancement created by competitive corporations has enhanced the mass of people to enjoy their decent entertainment