Digital Streaming Content: Changing Social Perceptions

Digital Streaming Content: Changing Social Perceptions

The way we consume video content has undergone a radical transformation. Gone are the days of VCRs and brick-and-mortar video lending stores. Today, digital streaming platforms using the internet have become a global business. (Zhao, 2022) The seeds of streaming were sown in the 1990s when audio compression technologies like MP3 came into being and services like RealPlayer and Microsoft's Windows Media Player allowed users to listen to music of their choice. This laid the groundwork for video streaming.

The 2000s saw the launch of digital video streaming, changing the entertainment landscape forever. YouTube, founded in 2005, paved the way for user-generated content. Netflix, initially a DVD rental service, switched to an unlimited viewing streaming service in 2007, based on a monthly model. These platforms faced challenges like bandwidth and piracy, but fuelled by technological advancements and an insatiable consumer demand for on-demand entertainment, they thrived.

Since 2010s, there has been an explosion of streaming services, each vying for a share of the growing market. Hulu entered the fray in 2008, catering to TV shows, while Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max launched in 2014 and 2020, respectively, offering original content and established library titles. These platforms to invest heavily in original content. Shows like “House of Cards” (Netflix), “The Handmaid's Tale” (Hulu), and “Game of Thrones” (HBO) redefined viewing, blurring the lines between traditional TV broadcasting and streaming.This “streaming war” has led to concerns about content fatigue and platform fatigue, as users struggle to keep up with the sheer volume of offerings.

The first OTT platform in India, BigFlix by Reliance was launched in 2008¹. But it wasn’t until Netflix launched in 2016 (FICCI & EY India, 2020) that the hunger for fresh content grew. OTT platforms offer a mix of films, series, documentaries, and other formats served to the audience on a “view-what-you-want, when-you-want” menu.

This has led to discernible socio-cultural impacts on society. Cultivation theory holds that the more time a person spends watching television (of all kinds) the more he or she will adopt the predominant outlook of the world that is expressed on the medium. (McQuail 2010). Early cultivation research findings (Gerbner and Gross, 1976) showed that the more television people viewed, the more likely they were to exaggerate the incidence of crime in the real world and the personal risks they run.

In today’s world the theory can be tested not only with relation to TV but also content on OTT & social media platforms. And the cause and effect may still be the same as it was five decades ago.

Thirteen years after her death, Princess Diana is in the headlines once again. Thanks to the Netflix series, The Crown, Season 4, old wounds in the British royalty were re-opened. Season 4, aired in November 2020, retold the fairy tale “marriage of the century” of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. The series spun the fairy tale even further by distorting some facts and showing Prince Charles and his then mistress Camilla (now wife) in poor light compared to Princess Diana.

For the British public, memories of the Princess Diana era had dimmed and there was acceptance of Prince Charles and Camilla, especially after they got married. “However, the latest season of “The Crown” reignited people's animosity toward the couple and created an entirely new generation of Princess Diana fans,” reported The Business Insider.²