How will new streaming services change entertainment?

Donovan Michel, Student

As Disney+ launches and other entertainment companies launch their own alternatives to services like Netflix and Hulu, the ease that streaming services initially brought is being lost. While Netflix rose to popularity due to its convenience and centralization of entertainment, that one-stop setup can no longer exist with many companies hosting their shows and movies exclusively on their own platforms. No longer can viewers watch all their favorite entertainment on one subscription. Instead, viewers must subscribe individually to each company whose entertainment you wish to view. This return to the customer-inconveniencing, multi-subscription system will likely lead to the deaths of many of the new services and the ultimate return to one centralized service, but in the meantime, consumers will have to find a way to get the entertainment they have become accustomed to while avoiding excessive payment. This could lead to an increase in illegal downloads of movies and a decrease in revenue for the movie and TV business as a whole, or simply higher percentages of consumers’ salaries going toward entertainment, both likely. In interviewing five Whitney Young students, one said that they did not have Disney+ and do not illegally download movies, while one said they had Disney+ and do not illegally download movies, one said they had Disney+ and do illegally download movies, and two said that they did not have Disney+ and do illegally download movies. What remains to be seen is how large entertainment companies like Disney and NBC will guarantee continued profits despite the inconvenience their current customers will have to go through to consume their entertainment.