All roads lead to cable

In their fight to win the war for our attention, streamers are re-creating cable from first principles.

In their fight to win the war for our attention, streamers are re-creating cable from first principles.

How it started

How it’s going

Platforms have tried to get ahead of that issue and stay on top of their finances with countless price hikes that have made it much more expensive to keep up with shows compared to when streamers first hit the scene. In hopes of courting more price-sensitive customers, many companies have introduced ad-supported tiers to their paid services. But some have also launched free ad-supported television (FAST) services that look and feel a lot like traditional cable.

Unlike regular streamers where constant ads and endless choices have become an annoyance, FAST services like Tubi, Roku, and Pluto TV keep things relatively simple. In exchange for watching a few commercials, users can browse through entertainment libraries or choose to focus on channels that are dedicated to specific series . When you look at the way that most FAST services present their channels in long lists, it’s easy to get the sense that they’ve been intentionally designed to mimic old cable interfaces. That might speak to entertainment executives beginning to think that icon-dense carousels aren’t necessarily the best way to show off a streamer’s offerings. It could also be a sign that viewers have grown weary of the algorithms streamers use to suggest what content to watch. But it also feels like as the streaming wars have carried on, newer companies realized that the old guard got a few things right.

What happens next

More individual streaming platforms will likely roll out always-on channels that are designed to give people a way to watch certain series without having to choose a particular episode for themselves. For services like HBO Max , that would be almost like a return to the way HBO’s various channels air on terrestrial television. In addition to helping viewers deal with decision paralysis, always-on channels could also help streaming services ensure that user engagement stays high. And if every streamer in the game decides that paywalled always-on channels, bundles, and even more price increases are the way forward, it’s really going to feel like we’ve come full circle back to cable.

By the way

Read this