Are Streaming Platforms Collapsing Under Their Own Weight?

Tell me if this has happened to you. You have a list of TV shows to watch on streamers. But the deeper you get into the current show you're watching, more and more keep coming out. You can't seem to catch up.

It can be overwhelming. This might be why the streaming platforms have gotten so big, that there's a danger to the industry. 

There are hundreds of scripted shows on streaming and network TV. Deep libraries have given people endless options to watch what they're in the mood to see. Now, more than ever, people are choosing things that fall into one of two categories: insanely popular or insanely niche. This dichotomy has sort of hurt consumers. 

Pick fatigue is very real, and many people just go back to old comfort shows instead of delving out into the overwhelming choices now present. 

With all these things swirling, insiders are worried the streaming bubble might burst. We've seen Netflix hit the capacity of available screens on the planet. They're trying to build infrastructure all over. But generally, if you want Netflix, you can get it. That means Netflix is trying to gather new people but running up against the idea that the people who have gotten rid of Netflix or don't have it may not have access or may not be interested in it as a whole. 

The same goes for password sharing. Netflix is learning that taking that function away is not as easy as once thought. 

What does this mean for TV?

Meanwhile, other streamers are sitting back and watching Netflix learn hard lessons while encountering many of the same problems themselves.

We pick on Netflix a lot because they are the first, but it's not like any of these other places have the answers. They're all trying to grow at such a rapid pace that no one has stopped to look around and see if people are actually succumbing to watching, or if the massive amounts of content are actually paralyzing people and forcing them to make the hard choices by unsubscribing to many platforms and choosing a few. 

This all has changed the landscape of what's being made, as well.

Take Netflix, which now is pivoting what kinds of content they make based on the idea of how they can draw new people in and keep the subscribers they have. The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit explained, “TV and other parts of the company have taken their hits, but a pointed focus is the features division. A good portion of cuts have wiped out the family live-action film division, and the original independent features division … has also seen its ranks cleaned out.”

This is the beginning of a much bigger story, one that's being written every day as streamers try to find answers to the questions posed here. As the industry changes rapidly, it feels like parts of it are stuck in the past. We're basically all paying for cable now, but instead of full packages, we're selecting channels. And the sum of the costs is skyrocketing past what people used to pay. 

Something has to change soon, or this bubble will burst.

Let us know what you think in the comments.