Life In the Time of Streaming Collapse | August 4 Issue

Intro Blurb

🎶 Lockheed Martin, Alex Jones, Warner Brothers self owns

ByteDance, Elon sues, Kansas voters good news 

Climate change, vaccines, England still has a queen

Beyonce, Kelis, Kim Petras, goodbye 

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning 🎶

Platform Updates

Instagram 

• Instagram Seeks Data on Users’ Ethnicity to Improve User Experience

The Rest of Meta 

• Meta Tells US Publishers That its Cutting Funding for News Tab Content  

• Facebook Shuts Down its Live Commerce Push, Which May Reflect Broader Disinterest in Live Shopping

TikTok

• Ticketmaster, TikTok partner to give users a new way to discover and purchase event tickets

Twitter

• Twitter Announces Price Hike for Twitter Blue Subscriptions 💰

• If you need help understanding why Lockheed Martin was trending earlier this week, read this

YouTube

• YouTube creators can now turn old VODs into new Shorts

Pinterest 

• Pinterest Launches Real-Time Analytics in its Mobile App

• Pinterest's new app is here to help you slap together and share a mood board

Discord

• Discord overhauls its Android app so you won’t have to wait for new features

Snap 

• The Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund will pay out $100,000 to artists who are “driving creation”

Culture Movers 

Music 

• Beyoncé edits two songs on Renaissance after social backlash

Streaming 

• HBO Max’s $90 million Batgirl movie is headed to the vault

• With HBO Max and Discovery+ Expected to Merge, Streamers Debate Scale vs. Brand Identity

• One of the most enduring shows on TV is getting put behind a Peacock paywall

How to Ruin a Streaming Service 

I think it’s time to add the end of the streaming services boom to the growing list of apocalypses we are living through. Quibi now feels like the harbinger of things to come. 

The rumor circulating on Twitter is that the newly combined Warner Media and Discovery doesn’t know what to do with HBOMax and will shut down all of the HBOMax original scripted shows. They’ve already started removing or canceling exclusive movies that are “underperforming” for tax write-offs. Other streaming services are feeling the pressure too, and responding by rolling out ad-supported tiers to bring in more users. CNN+ shut down before you could put you could finish typing in your credit card number to subscribe. The twilight years of the golden age of streaming television appear to be upon us. 

Hopefully, the best of the HBOMax originals will move over to HBO proper or get picked up by other services, but I’m not optimistic. I need to emotionally prepare myself for a future without additional seasons of Hacks and The Other Two. I love Trixie Motel and Conjuring Kesha, but if Discovery+ thinks that’s enough to keep my gay dollars after gutting the HBOMax originals, they’ve got trouble coming. HBOMax did a great job of expanding HBO’s reputation for quality, groundbreaking television. In my opinion, it’s been the best streaming service in terms of catalog quality. This brand is strong. It’s gonna be very weird if the new corporate overlords throw all of that away in favor of more 90 Day Fiancé spin-offs.  

Excuse the Rant

Earlier this week, I sent out a breakdown of what I thought went wrong with the creative for a billboard ad on the side of the legendary San Francisco drag bar, Oasis. I had a lot of fun writing that piece, and I’ve heard positive feedback from some of you too. This newsletter is very much an experiment, and a good experiment involves collecting and reviewing data. So in that spirit, I thought I’d ask for some quick feedback from you all. 

Thanks again for reading, and have a wonderful weekend!