Streaming Media

Overview

One of the most ubiquitous forms of media is streaming media, which involves downloading compressed video, audio, or animation files. The only equipment needed is a streaming-capable device, such as a computer, smart television, or mobile device, and a fast internet connection. According to the Pew Research Center, as of February 2019, 96 percent of American adults owned a cell phone, 81 percent owned a smartphone, 74 percent owned at least one desktop or laptop, and 52 percent owned a tablet computer. It has been estimated that 204 million devices were internet-connected in 2017. Popular streaming devices include gaming consoles, such as Sony's PlayStation 3 and 4 and the handheld PlayStation Vita or Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Xbox One, or a digital streaming device, such as the Amazon Fire TV, the PlayStation TV, Apple TV, the Roku, or Google's Chromecast. Streaming allows users to download apps from these services, connecting them to companies that provide free or subscription plans with access to videos and/or music.

Streaming media has a number of advantages over traditional forms of media. Streamed media is always available on demand, and viewers are not limited to watching a program only when it is aired, as with traditional media. Secondly, streaming media is easily accessible from a range of electronic devices. Streamed media can be viewed as soon as downloading starts, eliminating long wait times. Downloading is buffered to keep streaming continuous. Streaming media is also more affordable than traditional media. A streamed video, for example, can be viewed for a fraction of the price of a DVD or Blu-ray disc. Consumers may also sign up for streaming services that range from Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu to special-interest services featuring sports, movies, children's programming, anime, or gospel music for a few dollars a month. Or they may pay a fee for each file as it is downloaded, as is frequently done with movies recently released for home viewing.

Music streaming allows consumers to buy and download one or two songs without having to purchase an entire album. Consumers may also sign up for music streaming services from Apple or Amazon or from online radio services such as Pandora and Spotify. Major news and entertainment sites and network websites also offer streamed material.

Streaming media relieves the problem of limited memory for storage. Streamed music and videos may be available only while streaming, or they may be rented and returned within a designated period. Streaming is provided on servers assigned to that purpose in order to bypass traditional internet traffic. Real Network introduced streaming in 1995 with the debut of its Real Audio player. Microsoft entered the field of streaming with its Windows Media Player, which came packaged with Windows operating systems, and Apple introduced the Quick Time player for Mac computers. Major growth in the early history of streaming focused chiefly on internet radio stations.

Further Insights

The establishment of Netflix in 1997 significantly changed the technology of entertainment media. Its early emphasis on renting DVDs by mail ultimately put video rental stores out of business. In 2007, company executives announced the launch of the Netflix streaming service, eliminating the need to order and wait for DVDs to arrive my mail. Within four years, Netflix had surpassed the ad-supported BitTorrent to become the top video-streaming service in the United States. A major difference in the two services was that Netflix paid for the streaming of copyrighted material, but much of the material on BitTorrent was pirated. From January through September 2016, Netflix signed up twelve million new subscribers. By 2019, Netflix had almost 150 million subscribers worldwide.

Streaming has introduced innovative technologies that have significantly changed the balance of media power. Smith and Telang (2016) insist that streaming technologies have placed considerable power in the hands of individuals and groups that create new artforms and have taken it away from the large companies and corporations that held sway over media power in the past. This transformation, they say, has led to a "golden age of creativity." At the same time, Smith and Telang contend that streaming technologies have altered the competitive playing field so that traditional businesses have had to develop new business models that take streaming media into account.

Streaming media has become a major tool in American classrooms. Before the rise of digital media, videos and albums were limited to what a school or individual teacher could purchase on a frequently limited budget. Academic streaming services include music-streaming services such as Naxos Music Library, Alexander Street, and DRAM. One of the most popular academic streaming services is Academic Video Online (AVO), which offers more than sixty-seven thousand titles available on subjects that include health sciences, science and engineering, literature and language, diversity, art and design, psychology and counseling, architecture, business, education, fashion, and criminal justice. The material is derived from such respected sources as 60 Minutes, the A&E Network, PBS, the Filmmakers' Library, and Annenberg Learner. This material is composed of interviews, documentaries, demonstrations, and books. Another popular academic streaming service is Kanopy, which was established in Australia before relocating to San Francisco. It offers thirty thousand titles on a variety of subjects. In an academic environment, streaming media works in conjunction with e-books offered on a range of platforms such as Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook and, on academic and public library websites and Google Books. E-books also complement full-text databases such as Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, Communication Source, JSTOR, ERIC, and the Literature Resource Center.

Video viewing has been available to consumers since television was invented in Germany in 1929. By 1949, four broadcasting networks were available in the United States, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Columbia Broadcasting Corporation (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the DuMont Television Network. The DuMont network folded in 1955, but the other three networks controlled traditional broadcast media for the rest of the century. Over the last half of the twentieth century, inventors expanded viewing choices with the introduction of VHS video tapes in 1976 and digital video discs (DVDs) in 1995. In the last years of the twentieth century, home computers became more available and affordable. Vice President Al Gore was among the first to promote the possibilities of the "Information Superhighway," and Microsoft introduced Windows 95. The stage was set for the streaming media revolution and the rise of new media.

YouTube appeared in 2005, allowing any individual with camera equipment to stream themselves singing, playing games, cooking, painting, or performing any other chosen activity for global viewing. Established entertainers also created their own YouTube channels, and YouTube began to be consistently ranked in the top three websites with the highest traffic. Twitch surfaced in 2011, and both YouTube and Twitch made millionaires out of the most successful streamers who streamed themselves playing games that ranged from role-playing games like Harry Potter Lego and the Final Fantasy and Persona series to first-person shooter games like Call of Duty and Halo. Communities made up of gamers and fans from around the world formed around individual Twitch streamers. Benjamin Burroughs and Paul Rama (2015) report that every day 27 million people played or watched Lords of the Lost, an online game that is popular on Twitch. They note that that Lords of the Lost was watched by larger audiences than those that watched either the World Series or the NBA finals in 2015. In 2014, Amazon and YouTube battled one another to purchase Twitch, and Amazon won, purchasing the streaming service for 970 million dollars. More than one-half of all American households possess gaming consoles that provide easy access to both YouTube and Twitch.

Sports fans also entered the world of streaming. In addition to streaming games, interviews, and retrospectives, many fans became enamored of the world of e-sports, blurring traditional lines between the real and virtual worlds. The activity became so popular that e-sports competitions have been televised for mass audiences. In April 2015, for example, ESPN2 broadcast the Heroes of the Dorm tournament in which e-sports teams from Arizona State University and the University of California Berkeley battled for college tuition, and cutting-edge gaming equipment.

Television viewing has been changed significantly by the easy availability of streaming media. In 2011, for the first time since 1991, the number of American households owning televisions dropped from 98.9 percent to 96.7 percent. By the 2019–20 television season, Nielsen estimated that 120.6 million households owned televisions, with 96.1 percent of those televisions receiving traditional television signals. Traditional media was consequently forced to develop new business models in response to these changes. A variety of subscription services, including Netflix, Amazon Video, Vudu, Hulu, Sling TV, and PlayStation Now, are available, allowing viewers to pay a relatively small fee for streaming television shows and movies at will. Some cable companies, including Charter Spectrum, the third largest cable company in the United States, have introduced new streaming services in which viewers pay a small fee for access to a few self-selected channels, such as the network HBO. Local channels are included free as part of the package.

Americans, particularly millennials, are streaming more media than viewing it over cable. The practice of cord-cutting, which describes the abandonment of broadcast and cable television, has become increasingly common. By 2016, 23 percent of millennial-headed households did not subscribe to cable (Millennials Lead Way), relying instead on streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, YouTube, and HBO Now. According to market research firm eMarketer, 86.5 million households subscribed to pay TV in 2019. The advantages of streaming media over traditional media include lower costs, greater convenience, access to original content, breadth of available programming, and access to syndicated content. Widespread ownership of media players, mobile devices, and smart televisions—coupled with the ability of family and friends to share passwords for service accounts—contributes to the popularity of streaming services over more stationary and restrictive media outlets among millennial and later generation consumers. The popularity of streaming media, particularly for television and film, was further proved by 2019 as more and more companies worked to be involved in the arena and its customers. After having announced its intention to launch its own streaming service some time before, Disney released the much-anticipated streaming platform Disney+ in November 2019. Initial surveys indicated that the service had attracted millions of subscribers within weeks of becoming available.

Discourse

As they have become established in the field, technology giants have added new dimensions to streaming media that present new challenges to traditional television. Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu have begun creating their own original programming. Netflix entered the field of original programming in 2011, after Mordecai Wiczyk and Asif Satchu were unable to sell House of Cards, based on a BBC political drama, to any broadcast network. Wiczyk and Satchu were in talks to stream the series once it had appeared on network television, and Netflix executives had determined that it was likely to be successful because of audience familiarity with the British show and respect for the work of director David Fincher. After the networks turned it down, Netflix offered Wiczyk and Satchu one hundred million dollars to make twenty-six episodes. Unlike networks, which may spend five or six million dollars on a pilot, Netflix trusted its data experts to predict the success of House of Cards. The series won both Emmy and Golden Globe awards. Netflix data indicated that 670,000 viewers binge watched the second season when it was made available for streaming. The success of House of Cards led Netflix to release Bloodline, new superhero shows that included Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, and remakes of old favorites such as Full House and One Day at a Time. Netflix has also looked to other countries for inspiration, introducing foreign titles such as France's television series Marseille and a real-life version of Japan's animated feature Erased. In late 2019, the service premiered the new dramatic-fantasy series The Witcher, which is adapted from a Polish book series by Andrzej Sapkowski and instantly proved popular with audiences.

The American music industry originated with the music publishing industry on Tin Pan Alley in New York City. Sheet music was the chief product of the early industry, and songwriters wrote only what music executives believed the public would buy. Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877, followed by the introduction of the phonograph record a decade later, transformed the music industry. Broadcast radio arrived on the scene in 1923, and the first successful music recording companies appeared in the 1930s. New technologies included the short-lived eight-track tape, the cassette tape, the compact disc, the mp3 player, and Apple's iPod. Through it all, the music industry was controlled by a few powerful companies.

The erosion of traditional music media has been ongoing since the emergence of Napster in 1999. The service, which was the brainchild of Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning, and John Fanning, allowed anyone who signed up for the service to share mp3 files with other users. Napster was embraced by users, particularly teenagers with limited funds to purchase music, but it violated the copyrights of both artists and record companies. It was shut down in 2001, and its founders were forced to shell out millions in fines and licensing fees. However, by that time, music downloading had become an integral part of the music scene.

In 2014, for the first time, revenue from streaming music services outstripped those from traditional media; in 2017, streaming music services saw a 41.1 percent growth in revenue, while downloaded and physical revenue decreased by 20.5 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. By that time, there were 450 music streaming services offering consumers a large variety of options. Additionally, internet radio services like Pandora and Spotify flourished. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, streaming music revenue had grown 26 percent by mid-2019. Chief reasons for the success of streaming music media are mobility, the myriad diverse choices available, the association of music with recreation and relaxation, and the integral role that music plays in everyday lives. While most services promote the ability to personalize individual services, observers have found that most consumers prefer to listen to all offerings by a particular artist or opt for pre-selected lists chosen to match favorite music styles, moods, or activities.

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