Television is no longer a communal experience – the battle of paid streaming has truly begun

I’ll share a secret with you: I loved Game of Thrones because it made my job easy – the whole world wanted to know about the HBO show at the same time; every episode was an event. Now, the communal aspect of TV viewing is being eliminated with the arrival of new streaming services.

This month saw the release of AppleTV+, a new platform whose big new series, The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, should have been appointment viewing. To say it premiered to a whimper is an understatement; it started life as a series that most people in the UK probably didn’t even realise existed.

Earlier this month, Disney+ was unveiled, which – by the time it arrives in the UK next March – will be the only place to watch every new Star Wars and Marvel TV show. The UK also dropped its most ambitious foray into the streaming world yet with Britbox. The service, designed to rival Netflix and Amazon Prime, will be home to the largest collection of British TV content ever assembled in one place and will premiere brand new homegrown shows as well as big US imports.

If you decide against spending yet another £5.99 on each of the aforementioned streaming services, you won’t be able to watch their new shows simultaneously with the rest of the world – and, thus, something crucial will forever be lost in the television-viewing experience.

Things are only going to get worse: next year will see new services from HBO (HBO Max) and Universal (Peacock), which will be home to reboots of Gossip Girl, Battlestar Galactica and Saved By the Bell. Due to the over-saturation of these platforms, people will be forced to pick and choose the ones they subscribe to, and the buzz around new TV shows will disappear as quickly as it arrives.

I’m not going to miss Game of Thrones; I’m going to miss watching a TV show that the whole world digested together. Those days are over.

Yours,

Jacob Stolworthy

Senior Culture Reporter