If I had to bet on winners in the so-called "streaming wars," I'd pick whichever services have the most content that can be used as a sedative-like anxiety-reliever. One interesting piece of news to me this week regarding streaming was not Netflix’s earnings report. Nor was it HBO's monstrous Emmy nominations haul. Nor was it the announcements of HBO Max’s content team or its bringing back Gossip Girl. Nor was it the Gavin Belsonian announcement of AT&T’s set top box. It was a survey that found millennials’ most-used cure for stress and burnout is streaming Netflix or Hulu. More than drugs. More than alcohol. More than sleeping. And way more than spending time with friends or family. So are WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and Hulu set up to survive or even thrive in the streaming wars against Netflix, Disney, Amazon and Apple because of their titles known for sedative-like binge-watching effects? NBCUniversal, who have a streaming service launching in 2020, just pulled off a $100 million-per-year deal to take The Office back from Netflix.
That show is the most popular show in Netflix history, according to Nielsen (this chart from the Wall Street Journal shows the most watched shows on Netflix by minutes and the share of minutes watched for each of the competing in-the-works streaming services). The second most popular show in terms of minutes watched on Netflix? Friends, which was recently just acquired away from Netflix for WarnerMedia's streaming service. It sounds sad and a little pathetic, but both shows are most likely used for stress streaming. Why?
Lots of seasons: both network shows ran for at least 9 seasonsMore episodes per season: the typical network sitcom has 22 episodes-per-season, compared with the typical streaming show's 13Familiarity: they're like a warm, nostalgic blanket
Watching a show with this much material over and over again, something familiar yet vast enough to not be boring, can be soothing, I assume. Maybe these reasons are why gen z poster child Billie Eilish has watched The Office in its entirety 12 times over. Sure, Disney will have Marvel movies, Marvel series, Pixar movies, Star Wars movies and all 30 season of the Simpsons. HBO will have GoT and Netflix will have countless original series rolling out, plus Stranger Things. But will any of them have anything like the pixels-as-Xanax that younger generations apparently crave? Parks and Recreation is rumored to be following The Office from Netflix to NBCUniversal's streaming service. Grey's Anatomy and Modern Family are rumored to be on Disney's streaming service. Hulu already has Seinfeld. Are these shows enough to anchor another streaming service and enough reason to pay for another subscription? We'll see. But if they end up being so, we may not like the reason why.
The trailer for the movie version of Cats stole the off-putting and uncanny animal depiction crown from the Lion King. Sorry, Lion King. You had a good week-long run. (YouTube)
Tired of seeing Moon Landing 50th anniversary posts? May I suggest this Manson Family Murders 50th anniversary post on Vogue Beauty's Instagram? It has since been deleted. (Twitter)
Newsletters are hot. Startup Substack raised over $15 million, in a round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. (TechCrunch)
Does this feel like it's late and obvious to anyone else? Apple plans to fund original podcasts as competition heats up for a medium they invented, one that is named after one of their most famous products ever. (Bloomberg)
Hollywood talent agency UTA catches up to CAA and WME by absorbing Klutch Sports, one of the most influential entities in pop culture and media at the moment. (THR)
Fortnite's first-ever original series will NOT feature kills, but rather will be a competition based on creativity: "The new competition show, which is set to premiere Thursday, July 26, at 12:30 p.m. ET on YouTube, will bring together 16 Fortnite creative builders for three days of constructing to build four entirely new Fortnite games using its creative mode." (THR)
And while you were not paying attention, Fortnite just pulled off its version of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame. (TheVerge)
Further reading: — Review: Does Graydon Carter’s New Email Magazine Work?
The subscription-only Air Mail launched over the weekend
That Which is Not Named:
Red Scare
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Corporations have long had some of the most extraordinary, and surprising, art collections in the world.
The medieval, unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest
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