Hi all. I hope you’re all living joyously. Things have been tough in the UK with the current cost of living crisis. But if you’ve been struggling, good news! Conservative MP Rachel Maclean has the answer to your prayers. She says that people should simply work more hours or move to a higher paying job. I bet you feel pretty silly that you didn’t think to do that all by yourself. In all seriousness, what a bunch of condescending, snobby guff. That these comments – effectively blaming working people for their financial struggles in the wake of electric, gas, and food prices all soaring – came in the same week as Conservatives voted against a windfall tax on energy companies’ profits, is about the biggest slap in the face I can think of. I won’t be at all surprised to see the Government U-turn on this soon.
UPDATE: They have indeed U-turned. I know there’s no way for me to prove that I wrote this intro prior to the U-turn, but I did. Just a week after voting against a windfall tax, the Government announced that they would be implementing it after all. That this announcement came on the same day the Sue Grey report dropped was a complete coincidence I’m sure…
Speaking of financial struggles, today I’ll be speaking about streaming services. Netflix in particular aren’t in great shape at the moment. Let’s get going.
Without wishing to toot my own horn, I am somewhat qualified to speak about streaming services. In addition to being an avid user of all the biggest video streaming services in the UK, I’ve also spent my whole career working for companies who provide(d) video streaming solutions.
Starting out in the industry in 2011, it was an exciting time, with a big streaming boom about to hit. Netflix had successfully transitioned from a DVD rental company to a streaming company in the US. They were just about to launch across Europe. The success of Netflix brought about an uptick in companies wanting to achieve something similar. Though not many companies succeeded.
The problem for any business trying to launch a streaming service is the cost. If you want the ‘best’ content on your service, that means paying licencing fees. And when it comes to Hollywood studio content, the fees are expensive and (usually) have to be paid up front. So it can be a very long time before you actually see any profit, if you ever do.
One way around the big upfront cost is to opt for a smaller catalogue of content, or to use less premium titles. Though the money you save probably won’t be enough to make up for the lack of subscribers; not many people sign up for a steaming service without quality options to choose from. It’s a delicate balancing act and it isn’t easy to make a success of it.
This is why companies that already have lots of money tend to survive in the streaming game. Aside from Netflix, nearly all other successful services have massive income from other business avenues. Amazon have their e-commerce behemoth. Apple have their impressive array of smart devices and other hardware. Disney have their theme parks and merchandise (not to mention that after acquiring Fox and Lucas Film, they have such an impressive glut of content to offer).
The relative low cost of these services had led to reports that younger people were moving away from more traditional television packages. Cable and satellite services were being replaced by streaming. Though there was some truth to this, anyone paying attention to the streaming industry will have envisaged the inevitable destination we were hurtling towards.
Let’s say an average satellite service costs £50 per month. And on average, let’s say a streaming service will set you back £8 a month. If you only subscribe to one or two, obviously that’s much cheaper. But if you want Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and Disney+? It all starts to add up. And that’s not to mention other media subscriptions, such as Spotify or YouTube Premium, or news that is behind a paywall.
If you’re someone who cares about seeing all the latest content, you’ll have to sign up to more and more services. Throw in the news that Netflix will start to show adverts before you can watch something, and you can start to see how linear TV still has a space in the market.
I mentioned that Netflix is struggling; they’re losing money at quite an alarming rate. Increasing the monthly subscription fees and introducing ads is driving a lot of customers away. I think we’re reaching an ‘endpoint’ where people won’t be regular subscribers anymore. Instead, I think more people will sign up for free trials, binge watch what they can and then cancel before any money leaves their account. Else, they’ll sign up for a month and then cancel.
The reason I put ‘endpoint’ in inverted commas is that streaming services can be adaptable. They’ll do all they can to entice people to stay, whether by offering larger discounts if customers sign up for a year, or some other form of incentives. I don’t think streaming services are going away any time soon.
And that’s a good thing. Although their popularity may have taken a bit of a hit in recent times, I think it’s important to keep in mind some of the positive impacts they have made. Particularly around how they’ve helped to improve the quality of television (in my opinion).
The reality of linear television is that there is a finite amount of time in the schedule. This means that before streaming, we potentially missed out on loads of good shows, because television networks didn’t have the space to accommodate them. I remember when Fox cancelled Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and the uproar it caused amongst the fanbase. After a vigorous online campaign by the fans, eventually Fox caved and U-turned on their decision. As happy as I was that I’d get to keep watching the antics of the Nine-Nine, I’ve always wondered if there was an amazing show waiting in the wings, ready to take the slot, which never ended up getting made.
On the flipside of this, television networks also need to ensure that they’re filling their schedules. This is why in the 90s and 00s, a lot of shows would run for 20+ episodes each season. In theory, there’s nothing wrong with this. However, it would sometimes lead to quality issues. I listen to a podcast called Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum is most famous for playing Lex Luther in the show Smallville, which aired over 20 episodes per season. One recurring subject whenever he is talking to someone else who has done 20+ episode seasons, is how it’s impossible for all the episodes to be good. Some of them are just filler.
If you’ve ever seen a clip show episode, you’ll relate to what he’s saying. But it’s not just the clip shows. In a 20+ episode season, there can easily be 2-5 average to bad episodes. Episodes where not much happens or the story drags along boringly. It had to be this way, because there were time slots to fill.
Streaming has no such problem. There needn’t be any filler; if you only need eight episodes per season to tell your story, you can just do eight episodes.
The same is also true for episode durations. In the UK, if your show has an hour TV slot (on anything other than the BBC), your episode will be around 42 minutes, to allow time for adverts. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been watching a 42 minute episode that clearly needed more time to tell the tale. Plot lines are quickly rushed through and sewn up neatly. The opposite happens also, where an episode is clearly light on decent story, so it’s filled with inane side plots to pass the time.
Again, streaming has no problems in this regard. If you need an extra 10 minutes to adequately finish your story, have at it. Do you have an episode that gets wrapped up pretty quickly? No worries, just make it a shorter episode. For streaming, quality is so much better than quantity.
So what of the future? Where does streaming go from here? It’s hard to say. Eventually, technology will advance to the stage where streaming will become obsolete. However, don’t expect a repeat of what happened with VHS and DVDs to afflict streaming anytime too soon. The key difference of course being that VHS and DVD are physical media; it was inevitable that they’d be surpassed at some point. With streaming being digital, there’s every chance that streaming services will be able to evolve with the advancements, rather than getting left behind. I guess we’ll have to watch this space. One final thought I have on this is… to keep reading this blog post, please subscribe to A Rob Blog monthly or annual subscription plan. Extortionate fees will apply.
That’s me for this time. However, I can’t not mention the Uvalde shooting massacre that occurred recently in Texas. What an absolute tragedy. 19 children and two teachers murdered. Their lives senselessly cut short, and their families lives changed forever. And for what? So Americans can continue to “bear arms”?
Dogmatically hiding behind the 2nd amendment is causing irreparable harm to their country. To say nothing can be done because of a document written hundreds of years ago (back when the most lethal gun was a musket) is absurd. Hello? They’re called amendments; they can be changed.
America is not an outlier when it comes to mental health. They are not an outlier when it comes to violence in general. But where they are an outlier is the ease with which people can access guns. And not just handguns, but semi-automatic weapons. These tragedies have already happened far too often, and will continue to happen, until America stops sleepwalking through this nightmare.
One final thought: to the police who stood outside and did nothing while the gunman killed 19 little kids, shame on you. This was cowardice of the highest order. I know it’s a dangerous job. I know I couldn’t do it. But it is the job. The reality is that a bunch of children with books and pencils were left to fend for themselves against a gunman, because a bunch of cops with guns and body armour were too afraid to protect them. Shame on them.
To those who lost their lives in this tragedy, rest in peace.
A Rob Blog 