Disney+ to double it’s prices.

[Thebestoftherest]

The key point here of course is that the people leaving TV are not going to paid streaming. They're going to Youtube, Tik Tok and Twitch.

I seriously doubt any of those are a replacement for television. I can hardly imagine anyone going, "Eh, I'm cutting the cord on TV. Let's watch Let's Plays instead." If anything, they're turning to piracy.

I barely watch any TV at all. The internet has me for sure.

BTW, I'm of the opinion that Let's Plays have filled the exact same niche that football, baseball, basketball or any other sport that you want to name has in our collective consciousness. People sit there for hours watching football, they spend money on tickets to watch their favourite team, they spend money on merchandise, they proudly talk and debate and argue over the water cooler. Similarly people sit there for hours watching Twitch, they attend events, they spend money on merchandise, they donate in the chat, they proudly talk and debate and argue over the water cooler.

Times have changed. It is no longer socially unaccceptable to game or to watch other people play games. And the beauty of gaming is that you don't need to be physically fit to take part. You can be as fat, lazy and greedy as you like and still be a great player.

You don't watch any let's play, do you?

[clearspira]

The key point here of course is that the people leaving TV are not going to paid streaming. They're going to Youtube, Tik Tok and Twitch.

I seriously doubt any of those are a replacement for television. I can hardly imagine anyone going, "Eh, I'm cutting the cord on TV. Let's watch Let's Plays instead." If anything, they're turning to piracy.

I barely watch any TV at all. The internet has me for sure.

BTW, I'm of the opinion that Let's Plays have filled the exact same niche that football, baseball, basketball or any other sport that you want to name has in our collective consciousness. People sit there for hours watching football, they spend money on tickets to watch their favourite team, they spend money on merchandise, they proudly talk and debate and argue over the water cooler. Similarly people sit there for hours watching Twitch, they attend events, they spend money on merchandise, they donate in the chat, they proudly talk and debate and argue over the water cooler.

Times have changed. It is no longer socially unaccceptable to game or to watch other people play games. And the beauty of gaming is that you don't need to be physically fit to take part. You can be as fat, lazy and greedy as you like and still be a great player.

You don't watch any let's play, do you?

Dude, I need to tell you something about me: I used to be a member of the Something Awful forums back in the day. I witnessed the BIRTH of the Let's Play. And yes, we invented it. Look it up. I haven't been on there in a long time, but in fairness, nor has anyone else.

The Let's Play and Twitch gaming is now a community. People come together for hours and talk in chat. I once saw someone propose in Twitch chat. Dunno if it was genuine or not, but it happened. Sir or ma'am, if you think i'm bullshitting then I propose it is you who hasn't watched a Let's Play because there is a thriving community out there of hundreds of millions as passionate as any following for any sports team - except for the fact that we don't burn down towns or beat our wives whenever our team loses.

[hammerofglass]

And now I'm all nostalgic and just want to go hit the LP archive. Lt. Danger's LP of Neverwinter Nights 2 and Scorchy's LP of KOTOR 2 especially are works of art, shame neither ever did much else.

Never seen the appeal of Twitch personally, although that's another thing it has in common with sports fandom I suppose.

[pilight]

If you guys don't watch sci-fi television, how did you end up here?

[TGLS]

The key point here of course is that the people leaving TV are not going to paid streaming. They're going to Youtube, Tik Tok and Twitch.

I seriously doubt any of those are a replacement for television. I can hardly imagine anyone going, "Eh, I'm cutting the cord on TV. Let's watch Let's Plays instead." If anything, they're turning to piracy.

I barely watch any TV at all. The internet has me for sure.

BTW, I'm of the opinion that Let's Plays have filled the exact same niche that football, baseball, basketball or any other sport that you want to name has in our collective consciousness. People sit there for hours watching football, they spend money on tickets to watch their favourite team, they spend money on merchandise, they proudly talk and debate and argue over the water cooler. Similarly people sit there for hours watching Twitch, they attend events, they spend money on merchandise, they donate in the chat, they proudly talk and debate and argue over the water cooler.

Times have changed. It is no longer socially unaccceptable to game or to watch other people play games. And the beauty of gaming is that you don't need to be physically fit to take part. You can be as fat, lazy and greedy as you like and still be a great player.

Ok, and what substitutes for narrative drama and/or comedy? Like sure, I'll accept that YouTube has video essays that are as good as history/food/whatever shows are on television. Or that YouTube has sketch comedy down pat. But half hour/hour long comedy/drama? Just a desert with the occasional oasis of pirated shows that have somehow evaded the algorithm.

[CmdrKing]

To a degree you can subsist on legacy content from some media companies on Youtube of course. For instance, one of my go-to things for the past year has been the GundamInfo channel, which at any given time had a couple of full length Gundam shows from prior decades just available in full. And you can certainly find similar things for genres if you look around.

But yeah I think in part the issue the streaming era has had is, there's so MUCH new media everyone feels overwhelmed, so they're actually watching somewhat less stuff since there's no as much of the basic "everyone kinda watches this" content that has mass appeal.

[ProfessorDetective]

To a degree you can subsist on legacy content from some media companies on Youtube of course. For instance, one of my go-to things for the past year has been the GundamInfo channel, which at any given time had a couple of full length Gundam shows from prior decades just available in full. And you can certainly find similar things for genres if you look around.

But yeah I think in part the issue the streaming era has had is, there's so MUCH new media everyone feels overwhelmed, so they're actually watching somewhat less stuff since there's no as much of the basic "everyone kinda watches this" content that has mass appeal.

Yeah, animation is surprisingly available on YT. TMS has a lot of their back catalog up, for another example: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzGf0D ... cWL3e_tK1Q

[ProfessorDetective]

If you guys don't watch sci-fi television, how did you end up here?

I USED to watch Sci-Fi TV. Then I mostly stopped watching TV. Doctor Who, Lower Decks, and My Adventures with Superman are about the only ones I'm still following.