Could a genre focused streamer service survive?

[Sammael]

I ask because I'm currently feeling a streaming service malaise. So many new shows and movies, that do not interest me in the slightest. If feels like cable television packages remixed, with lower base costs.


The umbrella academy looks interesting, but not coming out until next month. I burned through runaways season 2 on hulu last month, and Sabrina earlier that month.


Ideally I'd like 2-4 shows I'd enjoy watching per month released. But I can't see that happening on netflix any time soon. IT seems like to them, it's one or at most two in a month, if that. When you factor in that not all genre content has the same appeal in the first place, like that series of unfortunate events for me, it just shows that the vast majority of money and content made goes to projects I Have no interest in. Now it's true that the reverse is happening too, money other people are spending to get more time to watch friends and the office (god what a waste, I've not been into comedy sitcoms/shows since married with children was on air) also goes to subsidize my personal tastes. But what if we spent more money on a more focused and dedicated streaming service?

A sort of streaming version of syfy.... that was not based on an advertising model, other than perhaps to release the first 1-2 episodes on youtube.


Could it work? I'd be willing to pay more for it, easily 25-30 dollars. They could even focus on higher bitrate streaming and higher framerates where desired.

Imagine a streaming service that had a collection of shows like the expanse, star trek, deadly class, hero shows, legion, the gifted, etc etc.


Where more of the revenue would be directly pumped back into more genre content so that we would get MORE of that. We could have saved Dark Matter, and bankrolled so many more experiments. It might take a billionaire to kickstart something like this, but it we had a central location for more concentrated focus of genre content for sci fi, fantasy, and genre comic shows, that scaled the entire globe... there ought to be enough people to make that work right?

Because absent that, I don't think it will ever be a prime focus for the jack of all trades streaming services. And lets face it, Bezos probably saved the expanse because he actually LIKES science fiction, Ted Sarandos, the content chief over at netflix, does not strike me as a guy that gives a damn about science fiction and fantasy. He has no skin in the game that tilts the scales for more content that many of us enjoy.

[Joker Venom]

I ask because I'm currently feeling a streaming service malaise. So many new shows and movies, that do not interest me in the slightest. If feels like cable television packages remixed, with lower base costs.


The umbrella academy looks interesting, but not coming out until next month. I burned through runaways season 2 on hulu last month, and Sabrina earlier that month.


Ideally I'd like 2-4 shows I'd enjoy watching per month released. But I can't see that happening on netflix any time soon. IT seems like to them, it's one or at most two in a month, if that. When you factor in that not all genre content has the same appeal in the first place, like that series of unfortunate events for me, it just shows that the vast majority of money and content made goes to projects I Have no interest in. Now it's true that the reverse is happening too, money other people are spending to get more time to watch friends and the office (god what a waste, I've not been into comedy sitcoms/shows since married with children was on air) also goes to subsidize my personal tastes. But what if we spent more money on a more focused and dedicated streaming service?

A sort of streaming version of syfy.... that was not based on an advertising model, other than perhaps to release the first 1-2 episodes on youtube.


Could it work? I'd be willing to pay more for it, easily 25-30 dollars. They could even focus on higher bitrate streaming and higher framerates where desired.

Imagine a streaming service that had a collection of shows like the expanse, star trek, deadly class, hero shows, legion, the gifted, etc etc.


Where more of the revenue would be directly pumped back into more genre content so that we would get MORE of that. We could have saved Dark Matter, and bankrolled so many more experiments. It might take a billionaire to kickstart something like this, but it we had a central location for more concentrated focus of genre content for sci fi, fantasy, and genre comic shows, that scaled the entire globe... there ought to be enough people to make that work right?

Because absent that, I don't think it will ever be a prime focus for the jack of all trades streaming services. And lets face it, Bezos probably saved the expanse because he actually LIKES science fiction, Ted Sarandos, the content chief over at netflix, does not strike me as a guy that gives a damn about science fiction and fantasy. He has no skin in the game that tilts the scales for more content that many of us enjoy.

I can't see it happening, mainly because all those shows are IPs belonging to different media entities. Getting all of those companies to agree on a project like that would be next to impossible, because they'd be fighting over who'd run it, and who's getting paid what. It's not a bad idea, but it brings up another issue. That being that sci-fi, despite its popularity, is still looked at as being a niche.

[Immortal Weapon]

There's genre specific streaming services do exist. Shudder is a service that specializes in streaming horror and thrillers.

[numberthirty]

There's genre specific streaming services do exist. Shudder is a service that specializes in streaming horror and thrillers.

That was the very first thing that I thought of.

[AndrewCrossett]

Narrowcasting (focusing on a single genre or topic) doesn't work very well in TV, economically. Witness all the cable channels from the 80's and 90's that no longer have much to do with the topics they were originally named after, or have expanded far beyond them.

[Immortal Weapon]

That was the very first thing that I thought of.

While not a service I also want to shout out the Crypt TV youtube channel. Their horror anthologies are quite good.