In her article, “Too much: Why the streaming wars between Apple, Disney, HBO and more are ruining TV,” Kelly Lawler touched on the media revolution that has seen the rise of the streaming platform. Behemoths like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu dominate the industry in which technology has completely overturned how consumers devour content. Lawler claims that the we’ve long since passed the point where anyone could keep up with new and notable television shows. Television isn’t as easy to consume, because as more shows enter the cultural conversation, one must be able to “keep up” in order to be included. On the upside, the increase in number of TV shows and streaming platforms has led to slight diversification of the industry as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon have “embraced new storytellers.” As of the past few months, two new streaming platforms, Apple TV+ and Disney+ have entered the fray and are relying on “knockoffs of familiar titles they own,” rather using new or exciting concepts or talent. Disney leans upon brands like “Star Wars,” “Marvel,” and “High School Musical,” whereas Apple has a huge budget to bring in stars like Jennifer Aniston and Stephen Spielberg. According to Lawler, the content on either platform is not very good. She concludes her article saying, “Welcome to the age of the Streaming Wars. I hope we survive.”
I thought this article was particularly pertinent to our class because it talks about the introduction of a new technology into a network. In the article, Lawler mentions how television isn’t as easy to consume, because as more shows enter the cultural conversation, one must be able to “keep up” in order to be included. This indicates a network effect because if more people are watching a show on one particular platform and are talking about it, you will want to watch and be included in the conversation. We’ve talked extensively about whether a new technology can be introduced into a cluster in such a way that the cascade would cause all nodes to switch technologies. Likewise, there would be a payoff in the underlying coordination game. It was done with the initial streaming platforms, such as Netflix, as they took over cable television as a dominating source of entertainment. Now, competition has as developed among streaming platforms and it will be interesting to see how these two large competitors enter the market. It will be interesting to see if the “knockoffs” will be innovative enough for users to fully integrate Disney+ or Apple TV+ into their repertoire of regularly used streaming services.
