English: Photograph of Roku XDS player with remote. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I did say this was a commentary in itself.
There are probably more streaming services out there than any of us know about. How many of you heard of Go90 before the Prime Wars Trilogy reviews? Or maybe you haven’t read them and you’re only hearing about it now? Or knew that Shout Factory TV or Pluto TV existed before I mentioned them in the MST3k Turkey Day announcement? I’ve also mentioned Crackle, Sony’s own streaming service, a few times as well as Vudu. The ones everyone probably knows are Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Meanwhile the CW has CW Seed, yet another streaming service in addition to the videos on the official network channel that carries their normal shows. If you’re an anime fan you already know about Crunchyroll, and the VRV service they co-operate with Funimation, who also streams their subtitled and dubbed Japanese animation on their own site. YouTube even streams original content not created by the community via YouTube Red and their streaming TV and movie rental services.
These are just the ones off the top of my head. There are others I know of and still others I probably don’t, and that’s not counting the various TV networks that also stream their shows via their website. Where once streaming was relegated to a handful of sites and YouTube clones (some of…questionable safety) now tons of ad and subscription based services are available. While I’m not convinced cable and satellite are going anywhere just quite yet, many of Millennials and even older generations are just using the internet for their “TV” and movie entertainment. Streaming boxes, Smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, and the computer are the way these people now get their visual storytelling. And now Disney is trying to expand their own service with Fox’s TV and movie library, while DC Entertainment has announced their own plans for a streaming service, both with original programming. Where once Hollywood studios seemed to shy away from the internet they now seem to be trying to utilize it…but are they now going too far the other way?
Continue reading →
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on January 10, 2018 in Internet Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged Amazon Prime, Crackle, Go90, Hulu, Netflix, Pluto TV, Shout Factory TV, Streaming media, YouTube.
