the downfall of streaming

➤ NEWSLETTER

➤ PRODUCTION
written by Mina Le
edited by Charlee Reiff

➤ SOCIALS

➤ CONTACT

➤ SOURCES
The Subscription Boom: Why an Old Business Model is the Future of Commerce by Adam Levinter (2019)

0:00 - intro
2:24 - watcher entertainment discourse
5:22 - the streaming economy
14:27 - movies and tv are worse
22:13 - we own nothing
30:40 - the patreon era
40:21 - conclusion

[watchlistenwrite]

Remember, y’all — Blockbusters still exist, and they’re called libraries! Your local library probably has hundreds of DVDs available for free.

[ktkat-kate]

This is why libraries are important!!!! Please support your local libraries! Donate, volunteer, vote, tell your representatives to invest in them.
Not only are they spaces that hold onto copies of physical art that you can use for no upfront charge, they are ALSO FREE COMMUNAL SPACES which we are also losing to rampant capitalism.

[sodadepayasito]

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing

[Kasamira]

They really didn’t get that, the benefit of a streaming service, was convenience. It takes me an extra 5 minutes to find a free version, where as Netflix takes me 25 seconds.

But then they increased the fee…. again, added ads, cutting everything after the first season, refused password sharing.

At this point there’s no convenience. No ease of use. Just annoyance.

[Ashley-kuis]

I'm a media archivist. Not only will we lose finished media, but we'll also lose the raw footage as well. Converting from tape to digital is a super time consuming and expensive process. Therefore, it's reserved, as you said, for only what is deemed "important". A lot of our old tape machines are breaking down, and not many people still have the knowledge and expertise to fix them. Eventually, these machines will be unsalvageable and all this footage will be lost. Not to mention that tape itself disintegrates. So without tons of money and time, a lot of media, including like I said raw footage, will be lost forever.

[roxrou]

What’s unrealistic is these companies expecting continuous growth year after year. This isn’t a product you need to buy more than one of. At 2024, it’s safe to assume that 90% of people who are willing to pay for a Netflix subscription have already bought one.

The market was never infinite.

[hollywooddarling]

downfall of streaming means i hope everyone loves how to pirate again. piracy in the 00s was how i became a cinephile and watched world cinema, which led to me actually paying to attend film festivals to watch these films and support these filmmakers in real life and eventually actually work in film. if you are curious and love something enough, you'll be willing to pay for it.

[dangerfeildLife]

My teenage job at Blockbuster largely consisted of getting yelled at by adults over their late fees

[friendlyneighborhoodloser]

about the fan fiction joke, my mom was an english professor for decades and actually studied fan fiction. there are a lot of programs attempting to archive fan fiction. it’s actually more common than people would think for it to be looked at through an academic lens. it’s incredibly interesting to learn about the academic side of it

[esbenm]

Since Netflix keeps cancelling shows after the 2nd season despite solid viewership because some algorithm told them the first two seasons gets the most engagement, I feel no responsibility to support them in any way. If they consider their shows disposable junk with no re-watch value, I will treat them as such.

[liv]

Isn't it wild that streaming platforms are now discovering that the best structure for entertainment is, in fact, the TV way? Staggering releases means people stay interested for longer (so many platforms now release episodes weekly or a few episodes at a time), selling commercials keeps your company financially viable and bundling many services together so we don't have to pay for individual -channels- platforms.

[glossyhobi]

Netflix blocking password sharing was the the straw that broke the camel's back imo. Having the community feel of sharing passwords in a group of friends for netflix, hbo, apple tv etc. is so much better than forcing individualistic consumption of content. After all, streaming along to films/shows together and discussing it afterwards is half the fun!

The worst part is - it worked. Netflix's profits increased after banning password sharing which makes me think other streaming companies will follow, i fear

[auroraspear]

Honestly I never watch real tv anymore, like not even Netflix or Hulu or anything, I’m almost exclusively on YouTube. It’s just easier 🤷‍♀️

[Andressadantas]

Also Netflix keep cancelling their shows after one or two seasons, it’s so annoying. Thats what made me quit on them.

[literallywtvr]

The anxiety over never owning anything is how I feel about social media, actually. It seems like these goliath apps will inevitably fall and then where will these years of memories go? That really spooks me.

[moonlight.corpse]

one thing is always certain: mina slays every single outfit in every single video

[oliviapilson]

It’s not JUST STREAMING TOO it baffles me how many apps require a subscription of $6-9+/month. Strava? That’ll be $12/month. Spotify? $6/10/month. Duolingo? $6/month Runna? $12/month? Like guys… COME ON. I miss the days of one time purchase (even though I was in elementary school when that was a thing)

[Chuuzus]

tv killed radio and streaming killed tv. i wish we could go back to the golden era of tv shows being 6 seasons and 22 episodes long. nowadays all we get is tv shows being 3 seasons with 8 episodes and they take 2 years or more to produce

[jessicamoore]

Many silent films pre-1927 don't exist anymore because celluloid was so flammable and films were considered throwaway. So much was lost. It hurts my soul that 30 years of the internet will have the same fate.

[lizzieperlizzie]

The thing that has made me return to scouring charity shops for dvds again was moving country and changing my amazon account country....who knew you lose all your "bought" films and tv shows when you do that? Never ever "buying" virtual media again