The Rise Of The Streamers: what’s your opinion about them?

I never had time to watch 600 channels of cable TV when first made available in the early '80's so I certainly don't have the time to flip through endless menus provided by all the streaming services just to find one show or two to fill my time when I WANT to watch TV.

I wonder what demographic all media distributors both cable and streaming think people do with their time with so much content to rifle through. Who ever they're marketing to they must think they have a lot of time on their hands devoted to watching TV. Now I do have a lot of time on my hands but I don't want to spend the majority of my life consumed escaping reality.

I don't even like binge watching though I've tried it once with "The Bite" because it was free on Spectrum cable and it was hilarious and good entertainment worth my time. With streaming I feel I'm going to be spending most of my time culling through a whole lot of disappointment.

 

Maybe another sign that streaming "originals" are getting the reputation direct-to-video movies had.

Dan Aykroyd at 0:57: "You look at some of the stuff on streaming now, I wouldn't watch that again, I'm not going to line up for that again."

 

I would say there was a much clearer distinction back then. When you watched something that was DTV you basically lowered your expectations and you could still have a good time with it if there was something that transcended it's roots. Now, it's top tier talent with big budgets making half baked, derivative, mediocre crap just to feed the ever hungry maw of all these content providers. The lines have definitely blurred.

 

I keep wanting some one to ask Aykroyd if he can still do the Bass-O-matic pitch number at the same speed and energy.

 

The problem for most of us of course is, too may different sources to find the content you really want, which at least used to be in one place, either broadcast television, or your cable lineup. Paying for one premium service on top of that, often got you a reasonable collection of extra programming. Cable gives you a jillion shopping channels, preachers and sports you pay a hefty price for even if you only want one game a week. Cable+a premium channel gives you at least a chance for the programming you want, at a higher ratio than the low-rent crap of Superstation syndicated sitcoms, The Fish Channel, and The Realtor Upsell Channel.

But since I started seeing Jon Stewart segments on YouTube, now I'm starting to think of reasons to justify purchasing AppleTV+, a channel I've heard has only one or two shows I might really be interested in...at the same price as a Hulu or a Netflix which offers far more. Jon Stewart is a voice that has been sorely missing from the discourse in the past few years, and I'd forgotten just how good his intelligent comedy is at bringing rational focus onto issues, and does a great job of declawing the disinformation. The reach of comedic analysis this pointed, suffers from being only available on a platform with such a small share of the public consciousness.

His work was an essential part of my basic cable lineup since he turned The Daily Show into gold, and I only wish we weren't missing that in a more-universal medium than AppleTV+.

Now here I am considering trying Disney+ for the first time, all on the basis of a Beatles movie.

 

It's clear you must not have watched much TV, let alone premium TV, as you mentioned it has not interested you (for odd reasons IMO). Otherwise your comment would come off borderline insane to me, by any stretch of artistic judgment. Broadcast TV with advertising has given us endless garbage, or at best, disposable comfort food. Meanwhile in the past twenty years, premium/ad-free cable and now streaming networks have been putting out incredibly high-quality storytelling, and as a result have attracted endless talent from the traditional film business. Seriously, I'm not sure why you are even commenting, let alone at length, if you clearly haven't watched a few well-regarded cable/streaming series in the past two decades. Odd!

 

Mmh...so you consider opinions in a normal course of discussing a subject as being borderline insane?

Please step away from the superlatives and hyperbole and no one gets hurt.

 

@JediJones's comments about TV shows and streamers baffle me.

The past 20 years have been a new golden age of TV series, coinciding with the rise of streaming services producing TV series. It has not been a continuation of TV of the past. In the past, TV shows were mostly one hour stories (monster-of-the-week type shows and stories that resolved within 40 minutes). Starting with shows like the Sopranos or The Wire, then into shows like Mad Men or Lost or Battlestar Galactica, TV shows have broken out of that past mode by taking advantage of the many episodes in a season to do complex, continuing story arcs and really flesh out characters and character development in a way that a movie's runtime cannot.

People describe theater as an actor's medium, movies as a director's medium, and TV as a writer's medium. The excellence of writing and storytelling is where TV series have outdone the other mediums in the past 20 years.

As for saying that a medium like movies draws a more discerning clientele because they are paying directly for the product, the opposite is true. Movies have become heavily reliant on prior IP (sequels, reboots, already existing stories and characters). They are more visually lavish because of the bigger budgets (again, it's a director's medium), but the bigger budgets have led to movie studios playing it safe with pre-existing IP and stories and appealing to the lowest common denominator, to avoid losing money on their big financial investments. Whereas TV's lower budgets have led to shows that try out new ideas and take chances in a way that your multiplex movies have not for decades; a TV show can appeal to a niche audience in a way that movies cannot financially do these days. When I go to the movie theater, I am often going to see Fast & Furious and MCU movies. When I watch TV, I am more watching things like Mad Men or the Leftovers. Big world of difference between these two mediums.

 

Streaming provides a whole new level of convenience and abundant (free) selections, and I no longer worry about DVD skips and freezes. Any film I've wanted to watch, I usually find it on one of the streamers I have.

 

Whose going to get hurt?

Yes, when someone jumps into a thread called "rise of the streamers, what's your opinion about them" and writes up a few paragraphs of commentary, apparently without having any experience with streamers, and further who apparently has no significant experience with televised content at all since the turn of the century, yes it's relative madness, however typical. And that's as much hyperbole as your gorgeously goofy "please step away" comment. But I see why you jumped in, you're in the same boat, aren't you? I find it wonderfully mad that people are giving their opinions about something they clearly have zero experience with. It's like some people just scan through thread titles to find things that they don't understand, so they can jump in and say negative things to reassure themselves and/or perhaps find comrades in inexperience. That seems to be happening here much of the time though.

 

But we've all given our reasons for not trying streaming in that some of us can't afford it or live in an area with questionable bandwidth and/oir the right compatible hardware/software.

But really all streaming is is a non-transparent internet shell site with a lengthy menu system just like cable TV. Some of us have been around long enough to examine what's put before us and from experience just know whether it's worth venturing into something as technical as streaming just to be entertained.

Just like those that told us Free Air Antennas would work and they didn't. But those that told us were so sure it would. We just don't feel like being sent on a similar snipe hunt.

 

I don't understand what you mean.

Fortunately, I don't have any confidence in your ability to make that make any sense, so I won't be awaiting any clarification.

If it makes you feel any more superior, my doctor confirms...I do have a weak stream. But, I obviously have experience with it.

 

No idea what you are responding to, since I wasn't talking to you or about you to begin with.

 

I think your absolutely correct. I just can't believe all the money that's around for all this to happen.
I only watch content on my oled tv from HBOmax, Netflix, etc. Viewing a movie on a phone is anathema to me but I'm an old guy.
Streaming is amazing but the limited lifespan on these platforms are such a turnoff.
If a few more films 'I' love were released on 4k hdr I would be happy till the grave.
Sound from streaming is sometimes problematic but I do marvel at it all.
I'm retired and where in hell to people find time to watch all this content made by providers. Wow!
Get classic films out on discs, the rest could stream and all is well. I guess they're doing this anyway so just get better. Money seems to be there so it just takes the will to do even better transfers and more of them.
I feel very out of touch since I was buying Magnetic Video back in 1978 and watched it all unfold and got to know many in the business and what a long strange trip it's been.
It's all good, but hurry!! John M. P.S. Disney S$$$s!