“The era of Peak TV hit a record-breaking peak in 2018 with the relative newbies of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Apple’s soon-to-debut small screen service beating out the broadcasters and cablers for the first time ever,” Dominic Patten reports for Deadline. “”
“Though down by a notch from FX boss John Landgraf’s prediction earlier this year that there would be 520 scripted original shows in 2018, the 495 that the cabler chief’s research department came up with is still the most television that has ever been on the air,” Patten reports. “Up eight shows from 2017, the 2018 tally also finds ‘online services’ in the top spot with 160 scripted original series this year.”
Patten reports, “Broadcast and basic cable were down from 2017, with the latter taking the biggest dive. Pay cable like HBO, Showtime and Starz saw an uptick of 32% over last year to its all-time high.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s debut will push the number of scripted original TV series well over 500 in 2019.
Sometimes we miss the days when everyone had fewer choices and shared a communal experience. “Did you see Friends last night?” “Of course!” (watercolor convo ensues)
Nowadays, it’s like: “Do you watch X?” “No, but we binged Y and Z last night!” “Yeah, we don’t watch those.” (end of conversation)
There’s getting to be too much choice. The amount of things in my Netflix list is mind boggling and I’ll just never get to them. There’s so much stuff I just don’t even bother starting because there’s not the time.
What I want to know is how people are watching shows. How many people watch same day over the air, same day cable, delayed DVR, and delayed streaming. That’s more relevant than the number of shows produced.