This is my video essay on the issues with streaming services which paradoxically both make our lives easier and harder to find what we want to watch. But why is that the case? What could be making the world of streaming services such a difficult minefield?

The simple answer is really that there are two problems: the burden of choice and paradoxically, the lack of availability for the right one.

We suffer what’s known as the paradox of choice. Given too many options, it’s believed this could ease our decision-making process but instead, it actually increases the stress and anxiety we might feel. There are just too many options to choose from and we really don’t know which one would be the best one. In doing so, we’re often left not choosing anything at all.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. This is my video exploring more about this strange phenomenon.

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What are Streaming Services?

Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. Streaming refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content itself.

Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, a process in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to start playing digital video or digital audio content before the entire file has been transmitted. The term "streaming media" can apply to media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered "streaming text".
Streaming is most prevalent in video on demand and streaming television services. Other services stream music or video games.

Advances in computer networking, combined with powerful home computers and operating systems made streaming media affordable and easy for the public. Stand-alone Internet radio devices emerged to offer listeners a non-technical option for listening to audio streams. These audio streaming services became increasingly popular; streaming music reached 118.1 billion streams in 2013.

"Streaming creates the illusion—greatly magnified by headphone use, which is another matter—that music is a utility you can turn on and off; the water metaphor is intrinsic to how it works. It dematerializes music, denies it a crucial measure of autonomy, reality, and power. It makes music seem disposable, impermanent. Hence it intensifies the ebb and flow of pop fashion, the way musical 'memes' rise up for a week or a month and are then forgotten. And it renders our experience of individual artists/groups shallower."

The term streaming wars was coined to discuss the new era (starting in 2019) of competition between video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Paramount+, Apple TV+, and Peacock.

Competition among online platforms has forced them to find ways to differentiate themselves. One key way they have done this is by offering exclusive content, often self-produced and created specifically for a market. This approach to streaming competition can have disadvantages for consumers and the industry as a whole. Once content is made available online, the corresponding piracy searches decrease. Competition or legal availability across multiple platforms effectively deters online piracy, and more exclusivity does not necessarily translate into higher average investment in content because investment decisions are also dependent on the level and type of competition in online markets.

This competition was increased during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic as more people stayed home and watched TV. "The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a seismic shift in the film & TV industry in terms of how films are made, distributed and screened.

And if you’re still reading this – hello.

This video is made through Fair Use under copyright law for the purposes of education in criticism or review; as well as parody or satire. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92c https://www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod