The Great Streaming Space-Time Warp Is Coming

"TV may be overrun, not by bad content, but by unexciting competence.

 Even if you take the optimistic view, that artists will always find space somewhere to innovate, the discussion around their work will inevitably change. The same-time-next-week TV schedule made the “Did you see it last night?” conversation possible. But on streaming, where you can binge a show in a weekend or sample it over a month, it’s always last night somewhere.

Streaming could have the effect of making TV both more ubiquitous and more submerged in the culture. The show that “everyone” talks about on Monday morning will be replaced by shows that different sectors of the audience start humming about days or weeks after they’re released. (Even the Disney and Apple series that follow a weekly release schedule won’t be tied to particular time slots.)

This kind of experience is nothing new in other art forms, of course; it’s how we’re used to talking about books. But TV’s simultaneous audience of tens of millions, all seeing the same thing at the same time, was what made it a mass, communal phenomenon."

analysis by James Poniewozik

The Great Streaming Space-Time Warp Is Coming - SkyStatement