(Photo credit @glenncarstenspeters)
Like many of you, I was excited to ‘cut the cord’ years ago when I joined Google and got my first Chromecast as a Christmas gift. I thought it would help me save time by not seeing ads and by scheduling time to watch what I wanted, when I wanted. I’m not quite sure it’s turned out that way as the proliferation of streaming devices, apps, and content providers continues to increase.
#techtopic
The early leaders in streaming TV & movies emerged in early 2007, with Netflix’s launch of its streaming service, and Hulu launching in early 2008. Before that, your options to watch content “when you wanted” was to rent VHS or DVDs from a Blockbuster store or Redbox kiosk, or have Netflix mail you DVDs. Apple iTunes and Amazon video-on-demand were in place before Netflix, but only available as downloads (which often meant you had to purchase the show and wait an hour for it to download back in the low internet bandwidth days).
Streaming content offered a whole new way for Netflix and others to really compete with TV channels in that it was actually available “now” - though their content selection was very limited at the beginning. Hollywood was happy to unload older TV shows and movies to Netflix on the cheap, but didn’t realize it allowed Netflix & its algorithms to learn huge amounts of information about viewer consumption habits. And then in 2013, Netflix launched its own original content in ‘House of Cards’ and the streaming wars (and Netflix bingeing) really began. (Really good podcast on the history of Netflix from Vox. Fun fact: the year Netflix launched original content, Blockbuster closed its last store).
Once Netflix showed its hand with ‘House of Cards’ & started launching more and more original content in the US and abroad, the rest of Hollywood woke up and tried to compete. Disney+ has been one of the star competitors because of the strength of its brand and the content it develops, with HBO struggling with confusing offerings. The vertical integration approach is also becoming an obvious competitive strategy and some players are better at one end (content development) vs the other (devices). AppleTV+ is a great device but the content is lacking. Quibi is a super-expensive disaster. There was an interesting partnership development last week with Roku (who builds devices) and Comcast (who provides content and distribution). Comcast owns NBCUniversal and thus its new streaming service Peacock.
The problem for me as a consumer is: by avoiding a cable subscription which jammed all sorts of channels into a package that wasn’t suited to me, I think I am now just subscribing to multiple different streaming services that ultimately cost more AND cause me more hassle to find what I want to watch. Do I dare ask for less choice again??
