The streaming era has finally arrived – and everything is about to change

Brooks Barnes for The New York Times:

Every three decades, or roughly once a generation, Hollywood experiences a seismic shift. The transition from silent films to talkies in the 1920s. The rise of broadcast television in the 1950s. The raucous “I Want My MTV” cable boom of the 1980s.

It is happening again. The long-promised streaming revolution — the next great leap in how the world gets its entertainment — is finally here.

There are 271 online video services available in the United States, according to the research firm Parks Associates, one for seemingly every predilection — Pongalo for telenovelas, AeroCinema for aviation documentaries, Shudder for horror movies, Horse Lifestyle for equine-themed content.

Disney Plus arrived on Tuesday and costs less ($6.99 a month) than a single tub of popcorn at big-city movie theaters. It allows anyone with a high-speed internet connection to instantly watch Disney, Pixar, “Star Wars” and Marvel movies, along with original series and films, 30 seasons of “The Simpsons” and 7,500 episodes of old Disney-branded TV shows… In May, WarnerMedia will introduce HBO Max ($14.99 a month), which will offer 10,000 hours of instant entertainment… Peacock, an NBCUniversal streaming service also scheduled for a spring debut, will offer 15,000 hours of content… As the Big Three entertainment companies launch their video platforms, streaming competition is mounting from Silicon Valley. Apple rolled out Apple TV Plus on Nov. 1.

With more original movies bypassing big screens, the line between TV and film is blurring, prompting once-unthinkable operating questions. Studios, for instance, employ separate executive teams to oversee the development and production of movies and television series. Should that siloed approach end? There has even been some muttering about whether the Emmys and the Oscars should merge.

MacDailyNews Take: It’s going to be crazy and consumers are going to be hella overwhelmed for the foreseeable future. Long gone are the days when you could ask at the water cooler “Did you see _____ last night?” and expect a positive answer. We live in very fragmented times; everyone’s got their own unique ball of cultural threads nowadays.

We just bought new 16-inch MacBook Pros, so we’re all getting Apple TV+ for free for a year, but at $4.99/month, it’s a no-brainer purchase as it offers a nice, growing selection of high quality content – most of which rolls out weekly. So, everybody get aboard the Apple TV+ train so we can have a “TV” experience in common again, for a change!