Total streaming engagement is up, but the demographics of streaming-exclusive viewers are getting more top-heavy. Here's why Hollywood needs to track the behavioral shifts behind streaming.
Streaming services are not being picked up by people under 34
(which is probably why Jack Manifold got that Netflix deal)
Gee, I wonder if that’s got anything to do with the extreme enshittification the industry is seeing. It’s almost as though younger people are less likely to be able to afford increasingly expensive luxuries right now.
turns out the streaming industry was purely based on stock investment AKA vibes about what the future might bring.
Product claims to be the future -> Lot’s of investment -> Product is dirt cheap and great -> doesn’t turn a profit ever -> loses investors -> gets enshitified -> less users -> less investment -> dies
It’s not losing investors that’s a problem, in a sense it’s too many investors that’s a problem. Investors give, but also take. A sustainable business needs to be from the start working to free itself from the need for continued investment.
Infinite growth in a finite world is the ideology of a cancer cell. Every investor expects a return, and in tech they expect a big one to offset the huge number of investments in failed ventures. The more attention they get the bigger the demands that get placed on them are. Tech has been taking these problems to extremes.
OpenAI is the worst here. It simply can’t make the amount of money it needs to to become profitable, much less give investors their expected returns. And if it could manage to do so it would be catastrophic to everything else. It’s become the equivalent of someone who’s gotten so juiced up and muscular that they can no longer reach their mouth to eat, much less to eat their maintenance calories.
Jacking up the price repeatedly in the first few years (since every service except Netflix is still relatively new) isn’t a great way to build consumer trust. I think most platforms were banking on popular IPs (Star Wars and Marvel for Disney; DC, ASOIAF and Harry Potter for WB; LOTR and The Boys for Amazon; Star Trek and D&D for Paramount; etc) to trigger some kinda compulsive “gotta watch 'em all” response from fans of those IPs, but if you ask me, it seems more like fans are starting to burn out on those franchises. I’m a huge Star Wars fanboy and there’s a Darth Maul series out and I can’t even muster the interest to watch it.
That’s how I quickly felt with the Star Wars franchise. The Mandolorian was cool, and I really enjoyed watching the first couple seasons. Then, when Obi Wan came out, I could really only give it a couple episodes. Then we became inundated. The IP needs to be shelved for a few years to let it breathe, but Disney won’t do that.
Now, I fear the same thing is happening with Star Trek. Maybe I’m just a curmudgeon, though.
Gee, I wonder if that’s got anything to do with the extreme enshittification the industry is seeing. It’s almost as though younger people are less likely to be able to afford increasingly expensive luxuries right now.
turns out the streaming industry was purely based on stock investment AKA vibes about what the future might bring.
Product claims to be the future -> Lot’s of investment -> Product is dirt cheap and great -> doesn’t turn a profit ever -> loses investors -> gets enshitified -> less users -> less investment -> dies
repeat
It’s not losing investors that’s a problem, in a sense it’s too many investors that’s a problem. Investors give, but also take. A sustainable business needs to be from the start working to free itself from the need for continued investment.
Infinite growth in a finite world is the ideology of a cancer cell. Every investor expects a return, and in tech they expect a big one to offset the huge number of investments in failed ventures. The more attention they get the bigger the demands that get placed on them are. Tech has been taking these problems to extremes.
OpenAI is the worst here. It simply can’t make the amount of money it needs to to become profitable, much less give investors their expected returns. And if it could manage to do so it would be catastrophic to everything else. It’s become the equivalent of someone who’s gotten so juiced up and muscular that they can no longer reach their mouth to eat, much less to eat their maintenance calories.
Jacking up the price repeatedly in the first few years (since every service except Netflix is still relatively new) isn’t a great way to build consumer trust. I think most platforms were banking on popular IPs (Star Wars and Marvel for Disney; DC, ASOIAF and Harry Potter for WB; LOTR and The Boys for Amazon; Star Trek and D&D for Paramount; etc) to trigger some kinda compulsive “gotta watch 'em all” response from fans of those IPs, but if you ask me, it seems more like fans are starting to burn out on those franchises. I’m a huge Star Wars fanboy and there’s a Darth Maul series out and I can’t even muster the interest to watch it.
That’s how I quickly felt with the Star Wars franchise. The Mandolorian was cool, and I really enjoyed watching the first couple seasons. Then, when Obi Wan came out, I could really only give it a couple episodes. Then we became inundated. The IP needs to be shelved for a few years to let it breathe, but Disney won’t do that.
Now, I fear the same thing is happening with Star Trek. Maybe I’m just a curmudgeon, though.