Cut!
It’s arguably never been a better time to be a fan of sitting on your couch and watching TV.
The rise of streaming has brought with it a golden age of television, as more original scripted shows have been made in the last few years than ever before. But, if it’s the golden age for viewers, it’s been more bronze for many involved in the production of our favorite shows and movies.
Indeed, the cameras of Hollywood remain firmly shut, as two major unions, SAG-AFTRA, representing performers, and WGA, the writers' guild, are both striking — the first time that’s happened since the 1960s. Their aims aren’t particularly different from strikers in other industries, negotiating for better wages and working conditions, demands that were perhaps inevitable in the modern entertainment landscape.
Indeed, streaming hasn’t been the plucky upstart for a long time — overtaking cable as the main form of TV consumption last year, accounting for nearly 40% of total TV consumption in America, per data from analytics firm Nielsen.
While traditional TV, a combination of cable and broadcast networks, still commands the majority share, the trend is clear — streaming’s upward trajectory suggests it’s poised to overtake traditional TV viewing in the coming years. That inexorable rise has made Netflix, the early pioneer of the format, a titan. The company is worth some $190bn as of the latest count, making it the most valuable entertainment company on the planet, even more than the ~$160bn of the sprawling empire of Disney — which has theme parks, a thriving merchandise business, box office blockbusters and of course its own streaming effort.
Pivot, pivot… pivot!
Netflix’s journey to streaming domination began in 1998, with the company mailing shipments of new DVDs. But the big idea didn’t come to fruition until 2007 when the company announced it would launch ad-free video streaming via the internet, granting subscribers access through applet, a unique browser users had to install. On top of procuring content, the company knew that having a killer recommendation algorithm was going to be key, even running a competition from 2006-2009 with a $1m prize to any team who could beat the company’s own algorithm — known as Cinematch.
The company toyed with hardware with Project Griffin — a set-top box built to stream Netflix’s content, a project that was canceled by CEO Reed Hastings at the last minute, eventually becoming an early product for Roku. Around the same time, Netflix struck a groundbreaking deal with Cable TV channel Starz, obtaining the rights to stream its extensive library for a yearly fee of ~$30m. Other cable channels soon joined, and the Netflix juggernaut began to pick up steam, with every new subscriber giving them capital to acquire, license and eventually make content.
