The Future of Media 2: Boutique Streaming Services

The Future of Media 2: Boutique Streaming Services January 24, 2025

As we continue to think about what the future holds for media, I think it’s worth asking what streaming is going to look like. (We’ll get to non-streaming as well; did you remember that theaters still exist–as does broadcast television?)

Image: Mt Holyoke News

We’re in the middle of a streaming war right now that nobody seems able to win–though Netflix is clearly ahead of the rest. Still, we all know that Hulu, Prime, Peacock, HBO, and Paramount+ are options (among many others). So what does the future hold in the midst of all this noise?

My prediction: boutique streaming services. By that, I mean a streaming service that manages to offer it’s subscribers an a la carte menu of shows from all the other services. The next step of streaming is the service that can get us Game of ThronesStar Trek: The Next GenerationReacherBridgertonThe Great British Bake-OffClarkson’s Farm, and whatever else your fancy takes you, all with a single subscription.

Now, there are two hurdles here that have to be jumped before this can happen: the technological hurdle (which device/website/app will do this?) and the legal/financial hurdle (how to do this within existing copyright laws AND in a way that turns a profit for everyone involved?). I am fairly confident that American ingenuity will find a way to crack this problem. We are excellent at bulldozing obstacles to our entertainment.

I don’t know what this service will look like–this is just a prediction that it will happen, and that it will happen soon. The easiest way of course would be for one of these to buy up all the others, though at that point we might run into antitrust issues. (You never know what might trigger the Feds on these kinds of things.)

Still, this is the next logical step in a fragmented entertainment culture. I’m not much of a gambler, but this really feels like a fairly solid bet for the very near future.

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO

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