Snippet: The Golden Age of the Streaming Wars Has Ended ☇

Alex Cranz for The Verge:

The streaming wars opened up more avenues of distribution, which meant more action shows with women as the leads, comedies that didn’t need a white dude or a big-time comedian to anchor them, and dramas with a happy ending and a title character that was queer. We often like to measure diversity in entertainment by “firsts,” and in the last few years, we’ve racked up more firsts than in a dozen preceding years.

But these unprecedented times, where we had so much scripted content available that Hollywood faced a showrunner shortage, are coming to a close. While the streaming wars haven’t ended, there’s definitely a lull in the fight, and the streamers are all adjusting their tactics. They poured a lot of money into content in the hopes of securing subscribers, but now there’s increased competition, and it’s no longer feasible to just shovel cool shows into our mouths with little programming strategy beyond “seems neat.”

Years ago, I had wanted to work in television and the last few years have been a boon for someone that was a fan of the creative part of the medium. With more ad-supported services, cheap to produce news and reality shows, and broader shifts in strategy, I had already felt the writing was on the wall—it’s just disappointing to hear it from someone else. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted, right?