Shift to Streaming

Post date: January 30, 2023

By Viena Fuentes

What are streaming platforms?

Many people were upset when the very last Blockbuster closed down since the enjoyment of being able to get out of the house and go pick out a movie to watch at home. Whether it was by yourself or with friends and family, people found it fun to walk down the many aisles that were sectioned with the different movie genres. Blockbuster shutting down saw the birth and the rise of arguably the most popular streaming service which is known as Netflix. Netflix contains a wide library of movies and TV shows of all genres and for all ages. Over the years many new streaming services developed like Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Peacock, Hulu, Apple TV, etc. Each streaming platform contains their own type of content, although some content can be found in several platforms at the same time due to the streaming rights. All the platforms mentioned previously have their own type of original content and this type of content can only be found in the platform it originated from. You pay for every platform every month and you can choose whether you want ads or no ads. Obviously the ad free option is just a bit more expensive. The prices per platform range from $7.99- $15.99 Many people have started to ditch cable because many of these platforms also have live TV and they realized that paying for all these services is essentially just another cable bill. Even though the idea of streaming services seems good, this has affected the way people watch movies and Tv shows in a positive and a negative way.

The impact of streaming services in movies.

During the Pandemic many film projects were getting delayed or canceled because people could not leave their houses and go to their local movie theater to watch those projects. In order to be successful, films need to make profit and essentially make more money in the box office than the amount that was spent on the budget for making the movie and marketing it. Because everything was shut down, many studios were forced to release their movies on streaming platforms where people could just view them at home. Some platforms didn’t charge for watching those movies, but Disney Plus would charge $30 for the movie (it was not included in your subscription). This eventually caused many movies to be sent directly to video on demand even though many of those movies were made with the intention of watching them in a movie theater. When theaters began to open up again, a lot of movies were still failing at the box office because people were still not too comfortable with leaving their homes, so many studios agreed that they would launch their movies in theaters and directly to streaming platforms simultaneously so people could still watch them from home. This saw an increase in people just staying at home and choosing to watch those movies and many movie theaters being forced to shut down because of the lack of audiences.

The impact of streaming services in TV shows.

The situation with TV shows is a little different than movies. The biggest thing regarding shows right now is popularity. Streaming services don’t really care if the critics and the audience don't like the show. If a scene of the show goes viral on social media and it draws a lot of viewers, they will most likely renew the show for several seasons. There have been many cases where TV shows have been liked by audiences and critics alike but because it didn’t have as many viewers as they wanted to or because it didn't have the “viral moment” they will cancel those TV shows and many times leave them off on a cliffhanger. This has made people very upset over the last couple of years because audiences can’t get properly invested in a show if it only has one season. TV shows need time to establish themselves and have the story and the characters progress, but of course this is not possible if they can’t get more than one season. Another thing that has made people very upset is how most of the current shows that come out exclusively on these streaming platforms are only 8-10 episodes. Previously shows that would air on TV used to be 20-22 episodes long. This gave the creators more room to grow and move the story with just one season. The final thing that has really affected the way some people watch shows is by binge watching them. This mostly applies to Netflix because Netflix drops all of the episodes of a season at once, leaving no room for people to discuss what occurred in a single episode, and also having people spoiling several important things for them because they finished watching the same show first. Audiences used to discuss the one episode that would air weekly and theorize what could occur next, and this was one of the fun things about watching them in the first place and unfortunately the binge mode has ruined that.

The takeaway

Although streaming platforms are very easy to access and they have a variety of movies and TV shows for everyone, this whole method that they use has severely affected the way people consume movies and TV shows nowadays. It is not possible to blame one specific platform because they all follow the same formula, but it is very clear that every platform is different and it has had its fair share of impact in our current film industry.