There are countless adjustments being made every day in our world to deal with the evolving coronavirus pandemic. Without the usual outlets of bars, restaurants or sporting events, we are transitioning to streaming services for entertainment more than ever. While everyone enjoys television and Netflix, the utilization of both has drastically gone up during the quarantine. There is a lack of our usual programming of sports with many countries canceling all sporting events indefinitely; The United States has done the same. The NCAA’s ‘March Madness’and golf opens have canceled and many more. The NBA and NHL seasons were brought to a halt. For the first time ever, the 2020 Tokyo summer Olympics have been postponed to 2021.
Villanova University Men’s Basketball “Wildcats” winning NCAA Championship in 2018
The lack of events and sports leads to a lack of regularly scheduled programming; but, with this void comes new content and streaming services. There has been delayed filming for some shows and cancellation of production altogether. Others have been working overtime to edit shows from home and release them by their scheduled time. Netflix has released over forty new titles for the month of April and intends to do so each month. Unlike some of their competitors, they’ve also changed their platform in the last few months to include a ‘top 10’ list of what is most popular. Some of their most popular hits of recent include Tiger King, Ozark and How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Amazon Prime is releasing many original shows including Hunters and The Man in the High Castle. Both Hulu and Disney+ have an estimated ten of thousands of episodes of series and movies to entertain people during this time.
On April 6th, 2020 a new streaming service called Quibi was launched. It is a short form streaming video platform. The videos are designed to run seven to ten minutes in length which is where the platform got the name. Quibi is meant to be a combination of the words “quick bites,” which is the design for the platform. The content is designed to be watched via smartphone. They launched with twenty-four programs including a reality dating show, a culinary game show, and an unscripted political docuseries and plan to gradually release more.
Another major change is the release of movies directly to demand. Movie theaters have recently gotten upgrades to make the experience more enjoyable including the plush lounge chairs; however, many people do not enjoy the movies. With the closing of movie theaters and the looming release date for these movies, they decided to release them directly, at a higher price of course. A typical movie rental on-demand costs around five dollars. These ‘In Theaters Now’ movies cost closer to twenty dollars. This cost is still much less than taking a whole family out to the movies. Amazon Prime is following suit and releasing a selection of movies that were scheduled to be in theaters now. Movies including Emma, The Invisible Man, and The Way Back are all available to order. This new way of directly releasing movies could potentially alter how movies are released even after the pandemic has passed.
While no one knows for sure just how long the pandemic will last, one thing we know is that there is no lack of content. The content has adjusted which makes one wonder, will it remain once this is over? Sporting events and sports broadcasting will go on with the void of it being deeply felt now. The streaming services are being heavily relied on; will they maintain this content in the foreseeable future? Our main focus right now is staying safe and staying home which is made easier with the continuous content from streaming services.
