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Streaming and the Next Normal
Mar. 30th, 2021 09:46 amI was reading this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-30/can-viacomcbs-s-paramount-and-discovery-compete-after-archegos
It’s Tara LaChappelle’s piece about Discovery+ and Paramount+ and their respective owners’ stock prices in the wake of the Archegos (Bill Hwang’s investment company, which has been experiencing forced liquidation since Friday) event. It contains this, which caught my eye:
“Bloomberg News noted that it would cost $92 a month to have access to all the main subscription video apps now, in line with a typical cable-TV package. Most households won’t be willing to pay this, especially as the world goes back to socializing and travel. So which apps get cut? The answer for viewers today may not be the same one six months or a year from now.”
It’s a worthwhile observation, but I guess I would note that as streaming services proliferate and become a more complete package comparable to what you can get via cable, it has become _far_ easier to travel and continue one’s normal viewing habits. You might think, but why, walkitout? You are traveling, socializing, etc., so why would you want to continue your normal viewing habits? Well, probably you won’t, if your travel is an intense weekend getaway. But if your travel is more than a week, and most of what you are doing is happening during daylight hours — touring a volcano, hiking up to a waterfall, going on amusement park rides, parasailing, snorkeling in a tropical paradise, etc. — then you are still going to have wind down time, probably in a hotel room, almost certainly (unless that waterfall and/or volcano were a through-hike somewhere extremely remote) with good wifi, and so why the hell not continue to watch whatever you would have been watching if you were at home?
We still have and I still regularly use a Tivo, but if the day comes when everything I time displace via the Tivo is equally available via streaming, I know which one is going away. I can bring the streaming with me.
ETA: I’m assuming that anyone whose travel involves taking the kids to see the grandparents, aunts and uncles for a couple weeks with no volcanos, waterfalls, tropical water to snorkel in, parasailing operations one would trust to sign up with, or amusement parks, then I don’t need to explain to those people why it is important to maintain access to the usual at home viewing. Y’all just look at your kids, think about NOT having the usual viewing access, and shudder.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-30/can-viacomcbs-s-paramount-and-discovery-compete-after-archegos
It’s Tara LaChappelle’s piece about Discovery+ and Paramount+ and their respective owners’ stock prices in the wake of the Archegos (Bill Hwang’s investment company, which has been experiencing forced liquidation since Friday) event. It contains this, which caught my eye:
“Bloomberg News noted that it would cost $92 a month to have access to all the main subscription video apps now, in line with a typical cable-TV package. Most households won’t be willing to pay this, especially as the world goes back to socializing and travel. So which apps get cut? The answer for viewers today may not be the same one six months or a year from now.”
It’s a worthwhile observation, but I guess I would note that as streaming services proliferate and become a more complete package comparable to what you can get via cable, it has become _far_ easier to travel and continue one’s normal viewing habits. You might think, but why, walkitout? You are traveling, socializing, etc., so why would you want to continue your normal viewing habits? Well, probably you won’t, if your travel is an intense weekend getaway. But if your travel is more than a week, and most of what you are doing is happening during daylight hours — touring a volcano, hiking up to a waterfall, going on amusement park rides, parasailing, snorkeling in a tropical paradise, etc. — then you are still going to have wind down time, probably in a hotel room, almost certainly (unless that waterfall and/or volcano were a through-hike somewhere extremely remote) with good wifi, and so why the hell not continue to watch whatever you would have been watching if you were at home?
We still have and I still regularly use a Tivo, but if the day comes when everything I time displace via the Tivo is equally available via streaming, I know which one is going away. I can bring the streaming with me.
ETA: I’m assuming that anyone whose travel involves taking the kids to see the grandparents, aunts and uncles for a couple weeks with no volcanos, waterfalls, tropical water to snorkel in, parasailing operations one would trust to sign up with, or amusement parks, then I don’t need to explain to those people why it is important to maintain access to the usual at home viewing. Y’all just look at your kids, think about NOT having the usual viewing access, and shudder.