The Future of Paramount+

[payn]

That's not my experience. Putting a whole season out at once used to be the norm for streaming services, but hasn't been for quite some time.

And making these shows "event TV" to be discussed and dissected with friends in person or with strangers online has made that format more accepted.

You can't easily do that when a whole season hits all at once. Either you have to binge it all quickly to avoid spoilers and then wait for everyone else to catch up, or jump into discussions before you've finished it and risk being spoiled, or watch it at your own pace and avoid discussions in the meantime, only to find that most of the things you wanted to talk about have been done to death, and the conversations have become stale.

Dump or weekly, its all in the writing. Event TV isnt easy. HBO is very good at it, Amazon sucks badly.

 

[MarkB]

Dump or weekly, its all in the writing. Event TV isnt easy. HBO is very good at it, Amazon sucks badly.

I don't think it can be denied that there was plenty of lively discussion each week about Rings of Power.

 

[bloodtide]

That's not my experience. Putting a whole season out at once used to be the norm for streaming services, but hasn't been for quite some time.

Because all services are not equal. Netflix has plenty of new content each month, plus they get other content.

Paramount+ has very little content, and is stuck with Paramount content.

Star Trek fans want to watch the new Star Trek shows....and that's it from P+. But they don't want a year long substcstion to watch ONE show a year. It's much better to get the "trial" long after the show is out...watch "wow all 13 episodes" in a week, and candle it again for a year or so.

But the "streaming services" got wise to this trick...and it's why they spread the show out for the couple weeks, as some people fall of that.

And making these shows "event TV" to be discussed and dissected with friends in person or with strangers online has made that format more accepted.

And they do try to hype it up. But not everyone is so excited to talk about TV shows. And like half the world does not watch them live anyway.

You can't easily do that when a whole season hits all at once. Either you have to binge it all quickly to avoid spoilers and then wait for everyone else to catch up, or jump into discussions before you've finished it and risk being spoiled, or watch it at your own pace and avoid discussions in the meantime, only to find that most of the things you wanted to talk about have been done to death, and the conversations have become stale.

It is easy for some people to avoid: you just avoid social media and don't have talkative immature friends.

The "cool kids" are only one of the viewers. I have a friend who waits the two years or whatever to watch Discovery when he buys the DVD box, for example.

 

[Umbran]

And the whole drag..............it out for weeks and weeks, does not work much anymore. A lot of people hate to wait a week or more between episodes.

I think that's likely a pattern that was created by the streaming services, and may not last beyond their pushing it. It may have been good for them at the very beginning, but binge-watching isn't an economic win for the streamers, who are probably long-term better served by continuing subscriptions.

And that's ignoring the social aspect of the viewing experience that is lost with binge-viewing.

 

[wicked cool]

I hadn’t realized they were merging. I have showtime do this could be interesting

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The problem is that under that top tier of Trek and an upcoming D&D series and whatever other original stuff you care about and a few Paramount movies the service's content quickly falls to z-grade dreck (in my eyes at least).

Pretty much exactly this.

This differentiates it from the other major streaming services, in a bad way.

Like:

Netflix - Huge amount of content, there's a lot of trash, but it's so wide that there's almost always something you'd be okay watching. There's a real depth of content as you find stuff you didn't even consider or know they had quite regularly. Overpriced to get 4K so I regularly cancel it but that's their separate stupidity and most people don't (either don't bother with 4K or don't cancel).

Prime - Often something good, again a lot of trash, but also some gems, and most importantly, it's a whole variety of services for Prime, not just video, so you probably don't cancel it if you are using the other stuff (I will admit Prime is looking a bit more threadbare these days but that's more because I order less and less from Amazon - their main store has gradually been buried under a slow tide of total crap - it's more like visiting some dodgy down-market department store from the '80s than the "Oh I will instantly find the thing I want!" that it was 5-10 years ago).

Apple - Pretty much only good shows. They basically Nintendo Seal of Approval'ing this naughty word. I mean, not all of them are for everyone (I've had e-bloody-nuf of Ted Lasso and his annoying pals - only the chicks on that show are ok), but fundamentally you're get particularly good 4K visuals and sound (visibly better compression than Netflix) and good shows. Watch and cancel, but still regularly get for a month or three.

Disney+ - Worldwide this is basically everything that's on Disney AND almost everything that's on Hulu in the US. Again that's quite a depth and breadth of content, from mid-tier TV shows to ESPN sports docs to MCU/SW stuff. I do think it may be at the "beginning of the end" of it being a good service given several the shows they're deleting entirely are pretty charming ones, but they kept me subscribed for a long time.

In the US and some of the world you then have HBO/Max, and in the UK, Sky/NowTV. Too different to discuss in detail though NowTV has most of the same prestige shows as HBO/Max, but point is, it's a prestige TV deal, for the most part, and you're likely to subscribe on that basis.

And Paramount+? It's Star Trek... and.... and.... I dunno? Yellowstone if you're into that Dynasty-type stuff. I hear it's good, but not for me. Then the rest appears to be both utter trash and no breadth or depth of offering. I just can't see ever subscribing for longer than the seasonal run of Strange New Worlds (catching up on the other shows as I go), maybe not even all of that - I could probably wait until the season is over or mostly over.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think that's likely a pattern that was created by the streaming services, and may not last beyond their pushing it. It may have been good for them at the very beginning, but binge-watching isn't an economic win for the streamers, who are probably long-term better served by continuing subscriptions.

And that's ignoring the social aspect of the viewing experience that is lost with binge-viewing.

This is correct, but I think it's too late for the genie to go back in the bottle, especially because of the continuing subscriptions issue and the fact that there are an ever-increasing number of competing streaming channels.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The good news is that the truly good shows (as opposed to the ones we enjoy despite knowing they're mediocre or worse) will almost all survive, as they'll be picked up by other distributors, as the model shifts to an online version of how broadcast and cable television worked for decades.

History doesn't support this opinion imho. Shows that are mediocre are often pretty successful and survive stuff that better shows but ones with narrower audiences might not. It's very easy for a show to have some element that makes it temporarily unattractive too, which is enough to delay a new season, which is enough for the actors to find new jobs, and then you're basically done in most cases.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

History doesn't support this opinion imho. Shows that are mediocre are often pretty successful and survive stuff that better shows but ones with narrower audiences might not. It's very easy for a show to have some element that makes it temporarily unattractive too, which is enough to delay a new season, which is enough for the actors to find new jobs, and then you're basically done in most cases.

Well, it's broadly true that shows that are good in the sense that they have both critical and commercial success do well. Shows that just have critical success are probably not as "truly good" as their fans would want them to be. ("It's good for a ____ show" is a big tip-off here.)

And, separately, shows can make financial success without being truly good, especially if the distributor is the producer or there are other such synergies.

And the writer's strike is going to cause good shows to get cancelled anyway, because everyone can't afford to wait around for production to start up again, when they need food on the table and a roof over their heads. The first movers when the strike ends will get up and running while those that take longer for whatever reason, like a wealthy star holding out for more cash, won't.

 

[payn]

And Paramount+? It's Star Trek... and.... and.... I dunno? Yellowstone if you're into that Dynasty-type stuff. I hear it's good, but not for me. Then the rest appears to be both utter trash and no breadth or depth of offering. I just can't see ever subscribing for longer than the seasonal run of Strange New Worlds (catching up on the other shows as I go), maybe not even all of that - I could probably wait until the season is over or mostly over.

The funniest bit about Yellowstone is the prime series streaming rights belong to Universal (Peacock) lol.