Streaming Wars: The Rise of Prime Video
As a long time watcher of online videos, I must say without a single shred of doubt Amazon is hell bent on trying to own everything.
A Stumbling Giant
In this past year, Netflix has been taken quite a beating. Adult cartoon shows like Tuca and Bertie burned out in the shadow of Bojack Horseman fast without any hope of a second season while their documentary selection has become complete trash. I remember once when I was a kid way back in the ancient times of 2012, when you could get the original Carl Sagan Cosmos on Netflix. Not anymore, as it would seem one of the most popular documentary series of all time just was too much wasted space on that central computer everyone hooks up to they pretentiously call a cloud.
This isn’t even considering how once Disney releases their own streaming services, the 90’s Disney films in their movie archives will also vanish. There is not one compelling Netflix show. Black Mirror has no edge anymore, even Season 4 at least had stuff like Heavy Metal and USS Callistar. Season 5 meanwhile was a total train wreck, one episode was a Disney movie and the other two were total drags that reeked of technophobia.
Yeah, technophobic sci-fi is a big nope from me. I’m not even sure what I ever saw in Black Mirror in the first place.
Okay I may have lied a bit, Love Death and Robots had Zima Blue. So I guess they have that. And for now you can get Ken Burns Civil War. For now. I wouldn’t bet on it staying around if these same people would Axe Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.
Now, I am a rather niche minded audience, but it would seem I am hardly alone in this. Seeing how Netflix has been fleecing subscribers and their show policies have led to a sewer where you get Germans just now learning about social media and the cringy premise of believing you can do Breaking Bad from Instagram or that one puberty cartoon people evidently like. Or daddy shark. Yep, Daddy shark. Netflix at times can feel like at best, a step or two above you tube in the kind of show selection they have including a never ending stream of awful conspiracy documentaries or whatever lame dream works cartoon adaptation they have this time.
And it shows, Netflix stocks have been down lately.
Amazon’s Power Play
It’s not game over for Netflix, yet, but they certainly are taking some punchers to the gut lately. Especially with their main competitor, Prime Video having recently getting significant success with The Boys as of recent. Don’t forget they also have The Expanse and Altered Carbon. Maybe it’s my sci-fi bias or something. After all, Orange is the New Black is something that sure as hell isn’t targeted to my demographic. Still, there is a general impression that Amazon Prime has this year become a very real competitor to Netflix. You have stuff like The Tick and Comrade Detective on there.
Whatever you may think of the shows Amazon Prime has available, it is hard to deny that they have emerged as a major, major competitor to Netflix in the past couple years. It is impressive to see how all encompassing Amazon has become and it’s what is scary. See, Amazon can run their streaming service at a loss much like Google can run Youtube (whose own Youtube TV is a joke) at a loss. When a massive tech company has a media streaming system they can run at a loss, that is a big advantage over Netflix who kinda can’t afford that kind of model. See, Netflix needs its subscribers, it can’t survive without them. Amazon Prime meanwhile, can have its losses made up by much more lucrative services such as the shopping site itself, Kindle and who knows what else.
Needless to say, the streaming platforms that have emerged for now at the very least have avoided the kinds of monopolies online video services have. Where you just have Youtube. However, it does seem that we are in a new phase of the streaming wars where a duopoly between Prime Video and Netflix has emerged, be it due to Prime Video’s rising position or Netflix’s stumbles. And it will be interesting to see, if Disney manages to compete once they release their own. As for the likes of Hulu, Youtube TV or Spectrum, who knows. Spectrum’s streaming services are pure terrible (3 minutes of advertisements every 12 minutes, what the hell is that?), Hulu’s so 2010 and Youtube TV is something even I, a frequent youtube video watcher, never even think about for a second.
