I'm of the mindset that with the amount of streaming services coming out within the next year like Disney+ and HBO Max, the market is going to reach peak saturation really soon. While this competition will almost definitely lead to more (and hopefully better) content being made, I'm fairly certain almost no one is going to pay for all of them especially long term. As such, winners and losers out of all of this are expected even the existing ones like Netflix and Amazon. So let's go over each of them and see what each one has going for it.
Netflix
Netflix is the default. It's the streaming service everyone has and what every company wants to be. Netflix might be the single most disruptive thing in entertainment this decade and that might actually be an understatement. Not to mention that shows like Stranger Things have enjoyed massive amounts of popularity on par with some of the best cable shows. However while they have the most experience they also have the most to lose. While Disney and Warner Bros have massive content backlogs they can fill up, Netflix is at the mercy of licensing.Whatever non-Netflix original there is guaranteed not be on Netflix forever, a problem will only get worse as more companies start their own services like Disney. And while that would be fine so long as the originals are good, lately they've been taking a "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach which means very uneven quality between shows and shorter than expected runs of most of those, even the popular ones.
Amazon
Amazon Prime Video is arguably the second biggest name in streaming and they've produced some popular shows like The Man in High Castle and The Boys just recently. I was tempted to not include them in the poll because Prime Video is basically a perk to being a Prime member which has more benefits than just that. Unless Prime subscriptions somehow take a nosedive Amazon staying in the streaming game is basically all but guaranteed even if they won't be the absolute biggest. But hey anything's possible.
Disney+ (and also Hulu since they're now fully owned by Disney)
This is arguably the biggest investment the company has ever made and their future is essentially riding on this. They literally bought Fox just to have more content for this thing. Disney is trying to do everything they can to make it succeed and with their massive library, low price (for now), Hulu bundle, and really exciting originals like the Mandalorian and MCU tie-ins. I'm not seeing this one failing at least right out of the gate. WIth that being said Disney has made no qualms about Disney+ being family friendly. And while I'm excited to most of their stuff finally made accessible for the first time, there's also not a lot of variety unless you really like family movies or blockbuster spectacles. So while having all the Disney stuff in one place is exciting, it's also kind of shallow and I can see the more older subscribers with no children getting tired of it really quick after the novelty wears off. At least Disney owns Hulu now.
HBO Max
Much like Disney, Warner Bros has a massive back catalog leveraging basically everything they own into this one service. While Disney is the bigger name and most of their stuff hasn't been on streaming before the potential variety of HBO Max is staggering. Shows on BBC, Cartoon Network, and even Crunchyroll and CNN all can be on there and if that's not a massive range of content I don't know what is. If there's any complaints I have it's the original content. I'm not sure if original content is even needed just for Max but what is there just doesn't seem that exciting. It's cool Aaron Mcgruder is returning for the Boondocks but is a Gossip Girl revival and a new Gremlins series even needed? Like will people actually subscribe for these shows? I'm also concerned that since HBO Now is already expensive that Max is going to be even higher. We'll see though.
Peacock
Comcast's streaming service seems to be leveraging their brevy of content (which is a lot because NBC and Universal are huge) along with original series. To me, Peacock just seems like HBO Max but worse. Their back catalog isn't as massive or varied and they're playing it really safe with their originals, which so far have mostly consisted of revivals like Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster and I don't think they carry enough status to compel people to subscribe just for that. Likewise I also don't think people are going to subscribe just to watch the Office again because people mostly watched it on Netflix because Netflix is the default and this won't ever be but that's just me. The potential is there but it's also one of the least necessary ones so far.
Apple TV+
Apple has no experience producing TV shows and their presence in this game is just baffling. To give them some credit, at least their originals are original and they seemed to attract some big names like Spielberg, Oprah, and even Sesame Street. But so far none of their originals really stand out, some actually look kind of bad like The Morning Show while others look like more expensive TNT shows. This endeavour comes across as the most experimental to me like if this fails, it's not exactly going to tank their brand. At the same time betting against Apple has historically been not a good idea.
I know I'm missing others like CBS and DC Universe (though technically it'll be part of Max) but these seem to be the ones emerging as the potential frontrunners. I'll be interested to see how this all plays out. No matter how you slice it companies are fully on board with streaming so seeing their attempts at breaking in or adapting to a changing market is going to be exciting to say the least.
Netflix
Netflix is the default. It's the streaming service everyone has and what every company wants to be. Netflix might be the single most disruptive thing in entertainment this decade and that might actually be an understatement. Not to mention that shows like Stranger Things have enjoyed massive amounts of popularity on par with some of the best cable shows. However while they have the most experience they also have the most to lose. While Disney and Warner Bros have massive content backlogs they can fill up, Netflix is at the mercy of licensing.Whatever non-Netflix original there is guaranteed not be on Netflix forever, a problem will only get worse as more companies start their own services like Disney. And while that would be fine so long as the originals are good, lately they've been taking a "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach which means very uneven quality between shows and shorter than expected runs of most of those, even the popular ones.
Amazon
Amazon Prime Video is arguably the second biggest name in streaming and they've produced some popular shows like The Man in High Castle and The Boys just recently. I was tempted to not include them in the poll because Prime Video is basically a perk to being a Prime member which has more benefits than just that. Unless Prime subscriptions somehow take a nosedive Amazon staying in the streaming game is basically all but guaranteed even if they won't be the absolute biggest. But hey anything's possible.
Disney+ (and also Hulu since they're now fully owned by Disney)
This is arguably the biggest investment the company has ever made and their future is essentially riding on this. They literally bought Fox just to have more content for this thing. Disney is trying to do everything they can to make it succeed and with their massive library, low price (for now), Hulu bundle, and really exciting originals like the Mandalorian and MCU tie-ins. I'm not seeing this one failing at least right out of the gate. WIth that being said Disney has made no qualms about Disney+ being family friendly. And while I'm excited to most of their stuff finally made accessible for the first time, there's also not a lot of variety unless you really like family movies or blockbuster spectacles. So while having all the Disney stuff in one place is exciting, it's also kind of shallow and I can see the more older subscribers with no children getting tired of it really quick after the novelty wears off. At least Disney owns Hulu now.
HBO Max
Much like Disney, Warner Bros has a massive back catalog leveraging basically everything they own into this one service. While Disney is the bigger name and most of their stuff hasn't been on streaming before the potential variety of HBO Max is staggering. Shows on BBC, Cartoon Network, and even Crunchyroll and CNN all can be on there and if that's not a massive range of content I don't know what is. If there's any complaints I have it's the original content. I'm not sure if original content is even needed just for Max but what is there just doesn't seem that exciting. It's cool Aaron Mcgruder is returning for the Boondocks but is a Gossip Girl revival and a new Gremlins series even needed? Like will people actually subscribe for these shows? I'm also concerned that since HBO Now is already expensive that Max is going to be even higher. We'll see though.
Peacock
Comcast's streaming service seems to be leveraging their brevy of content (which is a lot because NBC and Universal are huge) along with original series. To me, Peacock just seems like HBO Max but worse. Their back catalog isn't as massive or varied and they're playing it really safe with their originals, which so far have mostly consisted of revivals like Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster and I don't think they carry enough status to compel people to subscribe just for that. Likewise I also don't think people are going to subscribe just to watch the Office again because people mostly watched it on Netflix because Netflix is the default and this won't ever be but that's just me. The potential is there but it's also one of the least necessary ones so far.
Apple TV+
Apple has no experience producing TV shows and their presence in this game is just baffling. To give them some credit, at least their originals are original and they seemed to attract some big names like Spielberg, Oprah, and even Sesame Street. But so far none of their originals really stand out, some actually look kind of bad like The Morning Show while others look like more expensive TNT shows. This endeavour comes across as the most experimental to me like if this fails, it's not exactly going to tank their brand. At the same time betting against Apple has historically been not a good idea.
I know I'm missing others like CBS and DC Universe (though technically it'll be part of Max) but these seem to be the ones emerging as the potential frontrunners. I'll be interested to see how this all plays out. No matter how you slice it companies are fully on board with streaming so seeing their attempts at breaking in or adapting to a changing market is going to be exciting to say the least.
