OPINION: Streaming video services, oddly enough, have been around for many years. Prime Video opened its digital doors in 2006, Netflix followed suit in 2007, and iPlayer became the epitome we know later that year. If you put this in some context, they exist for almost half of my life.
It took so long for the streaming video war to really flare up. The studios, which were happy to license their libraries on Netflix and Prime Video, have pledged to launch their own streaming outfits and get a piece of the pie in what is becoming a “gold rush”.
I’m not a massive supporter of digital shopping or streaming (despite the desirable conveniences they offer), with areas that are too vague regarding digital rights and access. Sony and Nintendo puts a kibosh about digital stores for older consoles is a concern, as are issues related to the transfer of digital rights from one country to another. When the digital promise was that things would live forever in the “cloud,” reality showed that we didn’t indeed own specified items, just gain access or license to view them.
It’s a little off topic to delve into this column – not that there are too many streaming services (I already discussed this), but that streamers are fast becoming prone to risk, supported by franchises and familiar faces, rather than new ideas and original content that engages viewers.
This is what I took from the ad Paramount Plus is coming to the UK. Content prepared for the service includes a spin-off of Sonic’s upcoming sequel: 14 films in South Park over the next seven years, another Teen Wolf series – a revival of the 80s-based TV reboot – and a prequel to Sexy Beast (a 22-year-old film) ).
You could put a similar critique on the door Disney +, which diversifies its products, but outside of Star Wars and Marvel, there don’t seem to be any other big strikers. 20th Century Studios is releasing sequels to Sleepless Franchises (One Home, Focus Pocus), while Star Wars has made a spin-off (Bob Fett’s Book) from a spin-off (Mandalor) from the series (Star Wars), which produced 12 films per last 45 years. I wouldn’t say this is the freshest line of thinking.
You might think that streaming services would be a medium for experimentation, trying new things, letting new voices sound, and creating original content on which those services could build, but that’s fast moving in the direction of everything new. old. The latest popular Prime Video series – Richard – has already had two films starring Tom Cruise; next big anticipated series – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power …
Exceptional in this Apple TV + and BBC iPlayer. Apple’s focus on originals may be tricky, but it’s a more exciting approach than other services. And iPlayer started 2022 as a rocket with The Responder, This Is Going To Hurt and A Very British Scandal, which hit the service in recent months. They are all different from the consistent flow of increasingly inflated franchises.
The fear is that the studios will slowly but surely eat their own tail. The need to gain traction in the market by serving consumers more than they know is not necessarily a recipe for success. I think people crave variety and variety in their entertaining diet, even if it’s an unconscious thought, and when they serve similar dishes, they will end up making them bored and looking elsewhere.
It’s amazing to think that 80s and 90s movies were like Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Friday the 13thth, The Matrix, Ghostbusters, Predator, Creek, Truman Show, The Ring and countless more original ideas and properties. Look at streaming services and has anything the same affected anything new? When did the original become so old-fashioned?
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streaming services have become too risk-averse
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