Written in March 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Streaming is a present from the future which has arrived way ahead of its time. So, if the future has already arrived then what is left for the future?
When television became popular in the 1950s, there was an uproar from theatre owners and movie makers that TV was going to kill the cinema viewing experience on the big screen, as nobody would need to go to a theatre and everyone would be watching in their homes. More than half a century later, theatres are still around and they have only gotten bigger. Since World War II no field has made as much progress as science and technology, especially communication: from computers, fax machines, personal computers, pagers, laptops and mobile phones to touch phones, the iPhone, tablets and smartphones. When Stanley Kubrick made “2001: A Space Odyssey” and we saw the famous scene where two astronauts watch a video on two small devices placed on a table, who would have thought that it would become a reality, and that we would have similar devices in the year 2001?
During the troubling times of the coronavirus, communication became the most important factor of survival and information. Many of us were thankful that online services existed for groceries, other purchases and also entertainment. There are many accounts of people saying that during their quarantine, when they were cut off from the outside world, the thing that kept them going was entertainment, and streaming, or OTT, played a vital role. Entertainment, and especially movies, played an important role during World War II too. Below is an excerpt from a Wikipedia article on film during World War II.
“The film industry during World War II was an important source of communication to the people on all sides. At this time the cinema was the most popular form of entertainment to the people. It was used to entertain, lift spirits, motivate and inform the audience… Film was a powerful force which unified the nations.”
This feels very relevant in today’s world as we fight Covid, with keeping our distance from each other as one of the precautions. And today we have the means to stay entertained and informed even while isolated.
Compare the time it took movies to go from the silent era to sound, from black and white to colour, from the big screen to television, and to home media like VCR, DVD and Blu-ray: streaming took the least time of all to take over the market. The advent of smartphones blew the doors open for enormous possibilities in entertainment.
In Wim Wenders’ 1991 movie “Until the End of the World”, the story follows people obsessed with looking into a digital screen and reliving the same moments over and over again, abandoning reality. Once the iPhone launched and Android gained popularity this became a reality, and streaming is just taking it further. In an age where we are digitally connected and socially isolated, streaming is a godsend!
There are many reasons for streaming’s popularity, and data being cheap across the globe compared with five years ago is one of them. Take India as an example: when Jio launched, it almost broke the telecom industry, first with free data for almost a year and then with very cheap rates. This was the same time T-Series became the most subscribed channel on YouTube.
According to Ovum’s OTT Media Services Consumer Survey and OTT CSP Partnership Study across five nations, India has not only the highest share of paid online video service users but also of users with multiple video subscriptions. Local content is important in India’s online video market, with homegrown platforms such as Hotstar, Sony LIV, ZEE5 and Voot among the country’s top providers, alongside the likes of Amazon and Netflix. These local brands have greater prominence in rural areas, and consumers are also happier to accept advertising and share their personal data in exchange for a reduced bill.
Recently, when Warner Bros., one of the biggest studios in Hollywood, announced that it would release all its 2021 movies directly on its own streaming service, HBO Max, the entire industry came to a standstill. This was unheard of: a big studio scrapping theatrical-only releases rang a death bell for multiplexes. Releasing tentpole movies directly on a digital platform shows how much faith, or lack of it, there currently is in theatres. Disney has started day-and-date releases for some of its movies, which means they open in theatres and on streaming on the same day. All the major studios have started their own streaming services: Warner Bros. has HBO Max, Disney has Disney+ and Hulu, Paramount has Paramount+ and Universal has Peacock, alongside Netflix, Amazon Studios and Apple TV+, and who can forget good old YouTube, which started it all. With Sony probably gearing up for its own streaming service, the circle is complete.
So, has streaming won this war? Maybe temporarily. Trends always change, and new formats in film have often come from gaming and other niches before reaching the mainstream. We all remember how big 3D was just a decade ago: movies were made for 3D viewing, and some older movies were converted to 3D so viewers could experience them in the new technology.
The current trend is VR, or virtual reality, coupled with 3D, where you put on a headset and experience the video as if you are in the environment, in 360°. The immersion you get from 360° video is spectacular, and once you have tried it you won’t want to go back. So, see you in the future then!
Written by Brijesh Gokhale. Read more writing