Streaming Services and Their Effect on the Viewing Experience
By Isobel Edmonds ('24)
On April 14th, 1998, a new streaming service emerged online known as NetFlix.com. On the website, users could rent DVDs of their favorite movies from the comfort of their homes and receive them in the mail soon after. Ten years later, this delivery service was transformed into an online streaming service. While not the first of its kind, it was the first successful streaming service to be developed.
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In the years that followed, streaming services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime began to pop up as they launched their sites only a few years after Netflix’s success. During this time of streaming’s emergence, cable TV was still at its height. Gradually, cable TV started to face a decline as more and more streaming services developed. According to WGBH, as of March this year, only 48% of American adults have subscriptions to cable or satellite TV. Now, streaming services are extremely prevalent in today’s media, and cable TV has been almost completely snuffed out.
Cable television was the result of American technological advances throughout the 20th century. Although launched in the 1940s, cable wasn’t popular in America until the mid-80s when FCC regulations on cable were loosened. Before this, the FCC required all children's programming to ensure that young children could tell the difference between their TV show and a commercial. Most programs did this through commercial bumpers, which would play after a show had ended or showcased one prior to when the show began. Bumpers were not only used by children’s programming but also by many other channels, like news broadcasts and regular shows. This was because programming guides weren’t implemented until the 1990s and bumpers helped viewers figure out what they were watching while flipping through channels. Eventually, bumpers became extensions of the channel’s content.
A compilation of the "and you're watching Disney Channel" clips!
A prime example of this are the bumpers and commercials that aired on Disney Channel from the early 2000s to the late 2010s. You’ve probably seen many of the iconic “and you’re watching Disney Channel,” bumpers that have been its signature for over two decades. Bumpers like this, although unnecessary now, serve as advertisements for the channel. In a matter of seconds, the channel gets to present one of its manufactured teen stars, one of its TV shows, and the channel’s logo and theme altogether. Disney Channel is one of the most syndicated viewing experiences ever. Commercial breaks on the channel are unlike any other channel. While many take advertisements from third-party sources, Disney used their commercial breaks to advertise products throughout the Disney Company. From programs like Movie Surfers that allowed viewers to preview Disney movies on the channel, to countless sweepstakes, the move to streaming services makes watching Disney shows from this era feel empty.
The excitement of waiting for the new DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) or the latest episode of your favorite show was an exciting feeling then for kids and teens who watched, and a nostalgic one now for those who grew up with cable TV. The anticipation leading up to releases is emulated by weekly release shows that became popular in 2019 with the release of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. However, this weekly release trend isn’t the same as sitting down and watching the first airing of a new episode. With shows like that on streaming services, you are free to binge them whenever you like, taking away the specialness of the release.
A major difference is the lack of commercial breaks. Watching a show that was created without streaming services in mind feels clunky and awkward when the show goes to a commercial break and comes back seconds later. This is most apparent in scenes that are cut off on cliffhangers. With the commercial break in mind, characters often repeat the last jaw-dropping revelation they made. This is logical for shows aired on cable as after a two-minute commercial break, viewers may need that line repeated to remind them where they left off or just to avoid awkwardness as they continue the scene. The repetition of the line backfires when watching on a streaming service. To a viewer on cable, this is viewed as a recap, but to viewers on a streaming service, they don’t need this recap. They just watched this ten seconds ago. Although a small detail, it breaks the viewer's immersion from the show.
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The way we watched shows ten years ago is almost entirely different from how we do now. Fewer shows are being produced for cable TV, and are rather tailored for streaming services. This effectively takes away that break in immersion, but the transition from cable TV to all streaming services takes away that excitement that many teens and young adults had when waiting for a new episode of a show to come out. While cable TV is not the most revolutionary thing to us now, it has been a staple in our society since the 80s. In a few years, cable may just be a thing of the past. Although streaming services will probably become the next staple, cable TV brings people together through its programs, an aspect that streaming services just do not have.
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Cover photo courtesy of The Wall Street Journal