I’ll add an additional frustration: Most of these streaming sites (Netflix excepted) aren’t licensed in other countries. And Netflix’s international content is not as good as what you can get in the US. So our choices overseas are either to not watch anything (unacceptable!) or to pirate everything over a VPN. Which is what we do. But it drives me nuts, because surely the lawyers could work out licensing deals in other countries very quickly if the companies cared at all. Which they don’t. So we continue to watch illegally on our VPN.
I think this may actually be because of EU legislation to protect local markets against gargantuan American media corporations!
A certain amount of content available in European countries must be "local" and while Netflix is investing heavily around the world to meet these restrictions (this is why Squid Games even exists, honestly, which is a subject for a whole different and very interesting essay someone should write!), their primary audience is the US.
But, yes, many people are reluctant pirates already!
Yes! Switzerland had a referendum--which very unfortunately passed--last year, so now a certain proportion of content on streaming services playing in Switzerland has to be Swiss-made. Switzerland had like one film last year (First Cow, which looks lovely, but come on! It’s one film!). How is this even going to work?
Ayiyi! Hopefully it means the Swiss government will start subsidizing Swiss film and television!
That's why France has always been a film powerhouse. It's also the secret fact no one talks about behind the explosion of Korean film, which has transformed them into a major exporter of culture.
I think that’s the plan. If we get a Swiss show as good as Squid Game, it won’t be a total loss. And I was wrong--the Swiss film was Vedette, not First Cow (but Vedette is about a cow too--very Swiss!).
This is such a great piece - and so true to my experience over the past decade or so, too. Or I mean, it would be, if I pirated television, which I obviously don't because I would be in violation of the 1977 Stockholm INTERPOL thing. I'm glad I randomly restumbled upon your Substack after first seeing it a year ago and then forgetting its name. :P
Two idle thoughts here:
1) I've bought a couple DVDs for recent television shows, and they're so sad compared to even 10 years ago, when they'd be loaded with special features and commentary tracks and easter eggs. Why, for instance, did the DVD of "Madagascar" come with a scavenger hunt that unlocks a penguin-themed Metal Gear Solid for small children? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdluauxG4Ko) No idea. But I get the sense that for a brief moment in the '00s people thought of DVDs as a medium in and of themselves for a while? Hence Scene It! and crap like that.
2) Does widespread piracy mean the end of streamers/channels having their own meaningful brand identities, distinct from IP? Disney+ comes the closest to having one: it's the one geared towards children (and manchildren - apologies to Andor fans). And they can mostly do that because they have the controlling stake in Hulu and can dump their racier stuff there. It's possible that's totally unimportant to the streamers (see: HBO Max losing the "HBO"). But I think it's to, e.g., NBC's benefit that they can make a show like The Good Place that is subtly but deliberately invoking their past forty years of TV history as a metatextual thing. It's hard to imagine Netflix ever doing that.
I miss special features in general! I do like that certain platforms deluxify their Blue Rays with special features (like Criterion), but I remember all the weird stuff that used to be on DVDs too. I think people were trying to essentialize the need for DVDs by filling it with stuff (sometimes straight garbage that no one cared about) but streaming shows that most people will trade special features for convenience.
I think most of the streamers gave up their individual identities once Netflix went all in on Netflix content. Netflix could have continued to only make shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Prestige, highly curated, award winning type stuff. But instead of following the HBO model they decided they should be *every* channel. And I mean literally every channel.
For a while, Netflix had a distinct feel to it, but I don't even know what that would be now. I guess it kind of feels like having cable in the early 2000s where you can flip between Flavor of Love and Ancient Aliens and Predator and American Gladiators and Top Chef.
Outside of Disney+ (which you're 100% right about), I think Apple seems to be the one right now that's trying the most to have its own identity, which is to go that HBO route. It's both funny and sad that HBO is dropping HBO from its title in pursuit of also replicating the feeling of cable TV.
Imagine if libraries were disallowed from sharing digital copies of books, magazines, journals, and newspapers!
That's essentially what the video game industry has managed to do. If not, libraries all over the world would have digital copies of games available for the public. Which would honestly be the best armor against piracy possible. It would also ensure preservation.
This is a fantastic piece. You paint a clear picture of the streaming landscape and it’s potential future state. I’ve given up on pirating years ago, but who knows, a pirates like might one day be in store for all of us.
May 11, 2023·edited May 11, 2023Liked by radicaledward
Yeah, very possible. The light will turn on. That'd be a fascinating time. Also, terrifying.
There's been a lot of negative buzz around Xbox gamepass recently, after the release of Redfall, and I realized that if it fails, it could signal a downward turn in streaming.
Video games are often the canary in the coal mine for entertainment, at least for me.
Ah, interesting. I hadn't been paying attention to that.
My assumption with Gamepass is that Microsoft, unable to win the console wars, was positioning itself to kill consoles instead by becoming the Netflix of gaming. But if that's not working out anymore, they may just dump gaming entirely.
Which sounds crazy! But gaming is such a small part of Microsoft that it very well may be more of a monetary drain than anything else. Especially since the Activision acquisition got blocked.
Yeah so true. And it just might happen. They may close those doors.
It’s wild that a company with that much money and influence can’t make a stellar IP to save their life. Really goes to show you that taste, passion, and experience trumps $$$.
One funny thing about the attempted Activision acquisition by Microsoft was that Sony isn't even that much bigger than Activision! Microsoft has just ridiculous amount of money and could conceivably buy Sony without even breaking a sweat.
Which would be disastrous for anyone who likes games, but it's also not really in the realm of impossibility.
The optics are sooooo bad on that from an antitrust perspective, would be the obstacle there, right? What with the console landscape having been Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Microsoft for the past two decades and all. Whereas Microsoft could argue that "hey, us buying Activision would result in a more competitive marketplace" and be only *slightly* talking out their ass. :P
I’ll add an additional frustration: Most of these streaming sites (Netflix excepted) aren’t licensed in other countries. And Netflix’s international content is not as good as what you can get in the US. So our choices overseas are either to not watch anything (unacceptable!) or to pirate everything over a VPN. Which is what we do. But it drives me nuts, because surely the lawyers could work out licensing deals in other countries very quickly if the companies cared at all. Which they don’t. So we continue to watch illegally on our VPN.
I think this may actually be because of EU legislation to protect local markets against gargantuan American media corporations!
A certain amount of content available in European countries must be "local" and while Netflix is investing heavily around the world to meet these restrictions (this is why Squid Games even exists, honestly, which is a subject for a whole different and very interesting essay someone should write!), their primary audience is the US.
But, yes, many people are reluctant pirates already!
Yes! Switzerland had a referendum--which very unfortunately passed--last year, so now a certain proportion of content on streaming services playing in Switzerland has to be Swiss-made. Switzerland had like one film last year (First Cow, which looks lovely, but come on! It’s one film!). How is this even going to work?
Ayiyi! Hopefully it means the Swiss government will start subsidizing Swiss film and television!
That's why France has always been a film powerhouse. It's also the secret fact no one talks about behind the explosion of Korean film, which has transformed them into a major exporter of culture.
I think that’s the plan. If we get a Swiss show as good as Squid Game, it won’t be a total loss. And I was wrong--the Swiss film was Vedette, not First Cow (but Vedette is about a cow too--very Swiss!).
A land governed by bovine!
This is such a great piece - and so true to my experience over the past decade or so, too. Or I mean, it would be, if I pirated television, which I obviously don't because I would be in violation of the 1977 Stockholm INTERPOL thing. I'm glad I randomly restumbled upon your Substack after first seeing it a year ago and then forgetting its name. :P
Two idle thoughts here:
1) I've bought a couple DVDs for recent television shows, and they're so sad compared to even 10 years ago, when they'd be loaded with special features and commentary tracks and easter eggs. Why, for instance, did the DVD of "Madagascar" come with a scavenger hunt that unlocks a penguin-themed Metal Gear Solid for small children? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdluauxG4Ko) No idea. But I get the sense that for a brief moment in the '00s people thought of DVDs as a medium in and of themselves for a while? Hence Scene It! and crap like that.
2) Does widespread piracy mean the end of streamers/channels having their own meaningful brand identities, distinct from IP? Disney+ comes the closest to having one: it's the one geared towards children (and manchildren - apologies to Andor fans). And they can mostly do that because they have the controlling stake in Hulu and can dump their racier stuff there. It's possible that's totally unimportant to the streamers (see: HBO Max losing the "HBO"). But I think it's to, e.g., NBC's benefit that they can make a show like The Good Place that is subtly but deliberately invoking their past forty years of TV history as a metatextual thing. It's hard to imagine Netflix ever doing that.
Absolutely.
I miss special features in general! I do like that certain platforms deluxify their Blue Rays with special features (like Criterion), but I remember all the weird stuff that used to be on DVDs too. I think people were trying to essentialize the need for DVDs by filling it with stuff (sometimes straight garbage that no one cared about) but streaming shows that most people will trade special features for convenience.
I think most of the streamers gave up their individual identities once Netflix went all in on Netflix content. Netflix could have continued to only make shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Prestige, highly curated, award winning type stuff. But instead of following the HBO model they decided they should be *every* channel. And I mean literally every channel.
For a while, Netflix had a distinct feel to it, but I don't even know what that would be now. I guess it kind of feels like having cable in the early 2000s where you can flip between Flavor of Love and Ancient Aliens and Predator and American Gladiators and Top Chef.
Outside of Disney+ (which you're 100% right about), I think Apple seems to be the one right now that's trying the most to have its own identity, which is to go that HBO route. It's both funny and sad that HBO is dropping HBO from its title in pursuit of also replicating the feeling of cable TV.
I'm not part of this world but you make it vivid.
You are a bit!
Imagine if libraries were disallowed from sharing digital copies of books, magazines, journals, and newspapers!
That's essentially what the video game industry has managed to do. If not, libraries all over the world would have digital copies of games available for the public. Which would honestly be the best armor against piracy possible. It would also ensure preservation.
This is a fantastic piece. You paint a clear picture of the streaming landscape and it’s potential future state. I’ve given up on pirating years ago, but who knows, a pirates like might one day be in store for all of us.
I think the moment one of the streaming services announces that they're closing will turn everyone into a pirate.
Yeah, very possible. The light will turn on. That'd be a fascinating time. Also, terrifying.
There's been a lot of negative buzz around Xbox gamepass recently, after the release of Redfall, and I realized that if it fails, it could signal a downward turn in streaming.
Video games are often the canary in the coal mine for entertainment, at least for me.
Ah, interesting. I hadn't been paying attention to that.
My assumption with Gamepass is that Microsoft, unable to win the console wars, was positioning itself to kill consoles instead by becoming the Netflix of gaming. But if that's not working out anymore, they may just dump gaming entirely.
Which sounds crazy! But gaming is such a small part of Microsoft that it very well may be more of a monetary drain than anything else. Especially since the Activision acquisition got blocked.
Yeah so true. And it just might happen. They may close those doors.
It’s wild that a company with that much money and influence can’t make a stellar IP to save their life. Really goes to show you that taste, passion, and experience trumps $$$.
One funny thing about the attempted Activision acquisition by Microsoft was that Sony isn't even that much bigger than Activision! Microsoft has just ridiculous amount of money and could conceivably buy Sony without even breaking a sweat.
Which would be disastrous for anyone who likes games, but it's also not really in the realm of impossibility.
The optics are sooooo bad on that from an antitrust perspective, would be the obstacle there, right? What with the console landscape having been Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Microsoft for the past two decades and all. Whereas Microsoft could argue that "hey, us buying Activision would result in a more competitive marketplace" and be only *slightly* talking out their ass. :P