Streaming has totally changed the media landscape for better or for worse. And the economic equation is just so radically different that it makes you wonder what, ultimately, will be the endgame.
It seems to me that streaming is just a speedbump until AI generated entertainment takes off. And, in the end, the big winner could be live sports because people will crave some sort of real, human generated entertainment. As this is happening, we may see a pretty significant shift into people physically going to see theatre, sports and music acts for that very reason.
I’m no expert, but I do think that streaming will be seen, ultimately, as just a blip. In the end, pretty much all entertainment will be AI generated and the tiny sliver that isn’t will be given a lot of cultural value for that very reason.
Here is what I think is the endgame for the streaming industry. At some point in the near future — probably after we’ve either transitioned into a MAGA autocracy or wrapped up a civil war / revolution — Netflix will be morea database than an entertainment provider.
Simone is the future of Hollywoodand celebrity culture.
Because of advancements in AI, you will sit down in front of your TV or cellphone and you will be scanned for your particular mood at that specific moment. Then AI will spit out a six episode TV show or a 2 hour movie that fits your specific mood at that specific moment. It will use the bodyscans of your favorite actors to produce these completely AI-generated forms of entertainment.
So, there will come a point when Hollywood just feeds off the popularity of stars from the last 100 years, never generating any new ones because there won’t be any need. Unless, of course, someone really makes name for themselves on Broadway and they get a body scan so they can live passively off the licensing of that scan on streaming and other forms of mediated recorded entertainment.
But, wait, there’s more!
Soon enough, even having any form of human actors will be quaint and moot. All your favorite stars will be AI generated. They will be human like that all those dystopian 1990s movies about people developing parasocial relationships with faux Hollywood stars will seem very prescient.
And, what’s more,give us 20 years and all of your favorite Hollywood stars could be fucking androids. Unless SAG gets its act together, the only actors making any money professionally will be those on Broadway.
Otherwise, lulz.
We’re careening towards a very strange and weird future — especially when it comes to entertainment.
The whole TV world is obsessed with the battle over streaming. I think that not only is the whole streaming economy based on a lie, but it’s not long for this earth — it’s going to be soon replaced by the chatbot revolution.
Soon, instead of paying $15 a month for all this streaming content, you’re going to pay the same amount for access to the full body scans of your favorite stars that a chatbot will use to spit out very, very specific content.
I have no idea when this transition will happen, but it is going to happen. I suspect that at some point within the next decade. It may be delayed, of course, if we have a fucking civil war in late 2024, early 2025. But I seriously doubt that is going to happen.
What is more likely to happen is America will just drift peacefully into autocracy and, as such, the transition from streaming to AI generated TV and movies will happen a lot quicker than it might happen otherwise.
There are just too many streaming services. There is going to come a point where there are only about three (or four.) Let’s attempt to see what that future might look like.
Looking into my very cloudy crystal ball, here’s how I think might shake out to be.
Apple+ Apple, as best I can tell, is something of a black box when it comes to streaming. But they have so much fucking money, that it’s at least within the realm of possibility that they might buy Netflix and fold it into Apple+. I still think Apple should buy Spotify, too, but that’s just me. And, I suppose, it’s within the realm of possibility that Apple might buy Warner Brothers Discovery, too. I only suggest that because, typically, as any industry matures you get three major players and Apple buying CNN’s parent company wouldn’t be as big a deal if, say, NBCUniversal bought it. Disney+ I could totally see Disney in some way buying NBCUniversal’s streaming service. But this would be a very delicate situation because of Hulu. Or, put another way, Disney is so powerful that they’re going to endup being among the remaining three — how they get there I don’t know right now. (I’m drunk as I write this, so please forgive me if my thinking is a little bit clouded as to specifics.) Paramount+ The only way Paramount+ survives to be among the top three is if they open the floodgates of content. They would really have to lean into all that CBS content they have access to. If they flooded the zone with 60 years of CBS content, then I think they have a pretty good shot at sticking around. Otherwise, lulz.
I’m of the opinion that current streaming underperformer Peacock’s best days are head of it. The reason — I think it’s inevitable that there will be even more media consolidation and NBCUniversal is going to gain access to a lot more content for Peacock.
My current hunch is that Warner Bros Discovery will merge with NBCUniversal and then dump all their streaming content into Peacock. I think, long term, Peacock is a great brandname that will resonate with audiences. I also think that as the streaming business continues to mature that we might see some pretty shocking M & A activity.
Like, I think Apple might use some of its Solomon wealth to buy both Spotify and Netflix and then somehow meld all that streaming ability with both Apple+ and iTunes. Or something. That just seems to make a lot of sense to me at the moment.
I guess what I’m saying is — the streaming story isn’t over yet. A lot of interesting things are set to happen sooner than you might think.
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