It wasn’t long ago that it felt like we were entering a golden age, an unprecedented period of plenty. Spearheaded by the 2015 arrival of Netflix, the streaming revolution promised freedom, flexibility and abundant choice, as well as welcome liberation from the irritating constraints and practices of broadcast networks. The locally-made Paper Dolls , about the meteoric rise and fall of fictional manufactured girl-group, was made last year but is no longer available for streaming.
Credit: Paramount+ Almost a decade on, that gleaming early impression is looking decidedly tarnished as the dark side of the brave new world has become worryingly evident. That viewers need subscriptions to multiple services to partake fully in this land of plenty. That much of the content being excitedly spruiked in the relentless promotions for the latest must-see productions is actually pretty mediocre.
But also, and disturbingly buried quietly beneath the surface, that libraries aren’t forever and that history can be virtually erased. Over the past couple of years, as streamers have discovered that their business models, built on the shaky foundation of continued growth, are unsustainable, they’ve dramatically reigned in their spending on content and slashed expenses. Among the casualties have been their libraries.
The back-catalogues made up of titles that aren’t new but add depth to a service’s offerings are regarded by executives searching for savings as low-hanging fruit, ripe and e.