Chapter 2- On-Demand Services

 Chapter 2: On-Demand Services: 
 What pointS do I want to say???????

- Streaming is currently the most popular way of accessing media content
- brands are converting into this, and struggling against it.
- Streaming is much more attractive for consumers lifestyles
-streaming is more attractive for producers
-streaming is not as secured as broadcasting

2.1 Streaming In the eyes of the audience 

Streaming is excessively growing in popularity, and has the potential to wipe out broadcasting. 

For one, on-demand services are increasing in popularity, and is the modern way to consume 'Tv'. 

The majority of the public have chosen streaming over traditional broadcasted tv, with only a few remaining users being tied down by other benefits such as internet and phone deals (Cook, 2019).

Streaming is the prefered service; cables only reasoning for surviving is their convergence with other technology. What would happen if streaming services started having convergence with phones and internet? Arguably, Cable would become replaceable. In the US market, broadcasting is already dying out, with more than half of the population preferring to stream On-Demand content rather than traditional linear tv (The Nielsen Company (US), 2019). Through research, there were many articles on 'cable cutting' which refers to changing traditional broadcasted tv for alternative services, most commonly for streaming (Oxford, 2019). 'Kill your cable and switch to streaming with our guide to painless cord-cutting' (Kennemer and Cohen, 2019), 'Best live TV streaming services for cord-cutters' (Pendlebury and Katzmaier, 2019), shows that the process of updating to on-demand services and ridding of traditional tv has Is adopted. The choice to change is becoming a much a more popular one. 

(Screenshot of my Google search engine results for Cord-cutting)

Streaming is economical for audiences. On-demand is believed to be the more affordable option to audiences; streaming sites provide cheaper alternatives to traditional tv, a though accepted by 70% of the public (Cook, 2019). With so many ways to access it, people from different financial backgrounds can afford to obtain "Tv" from various streaming sources, such as Apps, internet browsers. Streaming is not only economical for our money but also our time. As (Yanev, 2019) states, 'In this day and age, everything is about information and productivity', we need to access things when we want to, instead of having items scheduled for us. Considerably modern viewer prefer to be their schedulers (Orlebar, 2011, p.4). Streaming, with its quick and 'on-demand' access, is highly accessible, from a variety of sources such as Smart TVs, game consoles, mobile phones, Apps, web browsers (Watson, 2019). With the use of multi-platforms, one can also watch on the go, fitting better into our tight schedules. Research shows that we have become overwhelmed with time and spend less time enduring leisure time (Burkeman, 2016). 

If we want the viability of the entertainment industry to continue, including both those of film and tv, it needs to adapt to fit within the consumer's daily agenda. From research, (check out appendix) I found 80% of audiences are multi-tasking while consuming tv. 

 

Highlighting the importance of shifting the way audiences can watch content, making streaming, with its multi-platform accessibility, on-demand content fitting. Broadcasting is unfit for audiences needs in the sense of access and timing. "Tv" needs to adjust to stay in the game of the entertainment industry. Streaming is great for consumers because it holds many benefits compared to cable.  It is more affordable and fits with the current schedule. 

For audiences, streaming is also a better source of entertainment. (Arthofer et al., 2016) argues that online streaming offers more to consumers, more content and choice. (Levenson and Cohen, 2019) Also comments there is a much more extensive breadth of entertainment options available with online streaming. Seen from the photos below, Netflix has a vast genre of possibilities in both film and series, and has genres minority groups such as the LGBTQ, and those from international countries. Netflix also has a large amount of content, with 1878 shows in its 2019 library (Boyle, 2019).

'Netflix alone has exploded from one show to nearly three dozen in about five years.' (Adalian and Maria Elena Fernandez, 2016)

2.2 Technolgy and streaming

Streaming benefits from current technology. In the US, on-demand streaming is accessible for masses of citizens. The third-largest country in the world ‌(World Population Review, 2019) has more than 45% of households with access to on-demand content(Watson, 2019). That is almost half of the public, with the US population being 329.45 million (World Population Review, 2019) that is a large amount of potential customers who already have access to this kind of service. 

Furthermore, smart-technology is becoming unavoidable. As (Levenson and Waniata, 2019) comments, in the current market technology such as TVs and mobile phones invariably will always be smart-technology. Technology that has built-in internet, and access to streaming services, which means that any current or new technology from now and in the future will always have internet access, aka access to streaming sites. Arguably, the market pushes us towards streaming content, perhaps as an alternative to t.v. 

One might argue services based off the internet are inadequate compared to broadcast, however as more technology supports streaming, the better technology becomes for streaming. Rapid improvements and advancements in technology are improving the accessibility and viewing experience of online streaming; aka less of a juddering experience from lagging, with much better quality, how it was initially intended to be seen by the producer (Cook, 2019). This shows that the consumer can resume to see shows in good quality, and are at no loss by choosing it over broadcast. And not only is the technology suitable for consumers streaming, Its also good for the creators. It means there hard work is not lost when it is exhibited through wifi. 

2.3 Creators, Animators and streaming

Streaming is a great opportunity for creatives. Creatives can have more freedom when it comes to streaming sites such as Netflix.

Streaming has less restrictions, whereas broadcasting has legislations when shows can broadcast depending on their contents. Shows that are deemed for adults that features graphic imagery, sex, violence and profanity language ‌(Ofcom, 2019) won't show during daytime hours, and their appearances may be effected financially if it is not broadcasted in prime time, where advertisers pay more to be placed near a scheduled show. On broadcasted tv, if a show is intended for an adult audience, it won't appear on telly until watershed hours, at 9pm ‌(Ofcom, 2019). For example, the show 'Family Guy' is not broadcasted on telly until 9.00pm, sometimes not until 2:00 am or 3:00 am (Tv Guide, 2019). One may argue that working adults do not have time to watch shows past midnight. Meaning, a large mass of audience may be missed, and with the economics of broadcasting, less views means the loss of money. However, 'Family Guy' is also on a streaming site called Hulu, which means, when streamed, it can be accessed at any time. It does not put up boundaries for producers to reach their audiences. 

On-demand allows for shows to be watched in the consumers time, meaning.

'there are digital possibilities to host your own programs, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, as well as films produced just for the web on Youtube and Vice- these are less restrictive as they online, taking away the necessity of a tight schedule.'(Brown and Duthie, 2016)

 It's much more accessible for people to produce their own films or series (Adalian and Maria Elena Fernandez, 2016).

Streaming sites, such as Netflix are great for distributing animation series (and films). Streaming sites allows for much more creative ideas, with much higher budgets for each episode (Adalian and Maria Elena Fernandez, 2016). 

Animation is succeeding on streaming platforms, compared to traditional tv. Amazon Prime has forty-four animated shows (Ranker Streaming, 2019)‌, Netflix has approximatively twenty-eight animated shows (Trumbore, 2019a), more than what I have been able to find on broadcasted networks. From research, found only twenty-four animated programs currently running on broadcasted networks. May seem only a few less than Netflix. However, the twenty-four animated shows were all from different networks and channels. The channels included: Adult swim, comedy central, fox, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, TBS, Disney Channel, PBS (Ranker TV, 2019). Twenty-Four shows, split between eight channels equals a rough average of three animated shows per network. Twenty-eight animated-shows becomes much more significant compared to the limited selection from the whole of the broadcasting platform. 

Including, some of the animated shows currently on broadcast may also be showing on streaming sites, for example, 'Sponge Bob Square Pants' a Nickledone program which is also streaming on Amazon Prime.

2.5 Hybrid broadcasting and streaming

TV Shows can be a hybrid between streaming and broadcasting (Adalian and Maria Elena Fernandez, 2016)

However, Orlebar, J. (2011) argues that technology only changes viewing habits and content.

 'multiple screens environment is helping to maintain robust consumer demand'(Satell, 2013).

Streaming can become expensive as there is a likelihood you will need to have multiple subscriptions to get all the content you desire (Hewgill, 2019). 

Streaming changes the economy of the Tv industry, hence the importance of film and live-action students to know the future of the industry adapting.











The increase has negatively effected broadcasting, with Hewgill (2019) describing the industry as 'A battle for your screen time'.





For producers, there are both significant advantages and disadvantages to on-demand media.
For instance, services like Netflix gives producers much greater freedom to create what they want, and allows them to reach audiences for directly.

For example, with networks and cables, if animations are pg12 or above, they will not come on into much later in the evening. However, it shows that are pg12+ can be seen anytime.