How digital streaming media change our habit of consuming entertainment?

Have you watched The Mandalorian’s recent episodes, completing The Breaking Bad series, or maybe binge-watching on Euphoria? If you already watched them, you’re completely catch-up with the movies and series that are inevitably rising and becomes so popular nowadays. Do you wonder what can cause these kinds of entertainment becomes skyrocketed and demanded highly? Almost of us may think that these are the new way to enjoy entertainment in this digital era. Yea, it is true. But there is some reason why people are slowly moving into digital streaming media as their primary entertainment provider.

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As we’re living along with the internet connection and the development of technology, it must be normal for people to keep up with the latest thing they can reach. The rise of internet consumption has changed how people do their activities, from interacting with other people on message apps and social media, shopping on e-commerce, and enjoying online entertainment. I bet we all already familiar with nowaday’s streaming entertainment for music, videos, podcasts, and movies like Spotify, Deezer, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Anchors — you named it. We are slowly moving into more “digitalized” products rather than staying with the conventional ones. If you were born in the 1970s until the 1990s, you may spend most of your free time watching television programs or play console games to fulfill the entertainment needs. Television is already dominated household entertainment until the late 2000s alongside cinemas and video players. The time before the internet may make you divide your time to enjoy things. Fortunately, gadgets and the internet can provide us entertainment that fresher than in the past.

What makes streaming media having more demands than conventional ones?

• Content
  Media is made for delivering content for the consumers. As televisions and radios had their own scheduled programs to be broadcasted, we as their consumers can’t decide which programs we want to watch or listen to. We can only pick the one that “close enough” to our needs instead of filtering them. Back at the time, the only way to choose content that fitted with our need is by buying VHS cassettes or CDs to be played by ourself. Otherwise, we can only enjoy what television programs available on the screen. With online streaming media, we can have more authority over the content we consume. Take a look at Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime, for example. We can choose which movies or series that fitted with our taste. Pick one kind of movie, and the build-in AI algorithm will suggest to you other movies or series related to it. It also works on Youtube videos and Spotify songs. Youtube algorithm can filter what kind of videos you may like and get rid of others you may not be interested in, based on videos you have already watched. Spotify will suggest some songs and albums that are related to the genres you play the most. The contents provided by these digital streaming media platforms can act like they knew the consumers, thanks to the AI and algorithm within them. People find out this feature can help and ease them to decide which kind of content they want to consume. This is why people are more preferred digital streaming media to their old TV or radio network.

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• Devices
  In the past, our granddad and grandma used radio to fulfill their necessity for information and entertainment. With the lack of technology by only hearing sounds that comes from radio announcer. Then comes television that can display visuals and audio, so it is more enjoyable to receive information or enjoy entertainment. As the technology evolved and became advanced, gadgets like computers, smartphones, tablets, and smart TV have eased us to enjoy the available entertainment around us, from a weighed boxy television to a small screen smartphone that fits in our pocket. This technological advancement seems pretty important to change our behavior to enjoying entertainment. We have already become a gadget-oriented society as we spend hours of our daily activities on the screen. People enjoy watching videos, movies, and listening to their favorite songs streamingly because it is way simpler today. Just connect your gadgets to the internet and enjoy them!
• Experience
  Do you ever feel annoyed being intercepted by ads while listening to your weekly billboard music on the radio? or lost your patience on 15 minutes-long household ads on television? Sometimes it distracts us from enjoying things. We can’t simply eliminate those ads because it was the main income for these conventional media to survive beside their ratings. The good side is you wouldn’t be found these annoying ads on streaming media platforms. It can happen because the most common streaming media contents are ads-free. A subscription is usually needed to enjoy this kind of entertainment. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime had their own bundling subscription package that customers can choose from. Spotify and iTunes also had subscriptions to get premium accounts that can be used to get rid of the ads and download music directly to the device. By subscribing to the providers monthly or yearly, consumers can stream a lot of entertainment on streaming media platform without any distraction. It could enhance the consumer experience to enjoy things more hassle-free.
  In recent years, the customers considered screen resolution and audio quality as the reason for their subscription. As 4K and the upcoming 8K high definition display quality flooded the market, streaming media also adapted to chase these resolutions to be implemented within their products. High-quality audio like Dolby Digital also becomes the new standard of music, movies, and videos provided by these platforms.

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• Access
  Access to enjoy entertainment is way easier nowadays. As the gadget and technology improvement that already explained above. No need to stare into your living room TV to watch comedy or reality show again. You can have it while riding the bus way back home after office on your smartphone. If you felt unproductive at work, you can play your favorite songs streamingly from your computer website instantly to boost your mood. Our gadgets’ simplicity with the improvisation of internet speed can sparks joy to anyone, anywhere, and anytime. Didn’t have any smart TV? Don’t worry, and you can improvise your old TV by adding Chromecast or android dongles, and voila! Now you can stream your favorite series on it. Everything could be easily accessible with a stable internet connection. Moreover, we hope that the 5G connection could boost the streaming speed in the upcoming years.
• Cost-Worthiness
  Quality comes with a price. Indeed, almost all streaming media platforms- except the pirated ones- come with a subscription. If you look closely and compare the streamed and the conventional and free media content will be much different. In TV programs, you may find slapstick jokes, low-budget serials, or opera-soap dramas. It is used by these conventional media platforms to cut the budget to the minimum they can to produce content. The result? Cheap and slightly non-professional content consumed by almost all people. They may focus their production funds on the news and information programs because it has the highest rating on television. In streaming media platforms, they already put subscriptions to their consumers before they can access the contents. Customers pay a subscription to enjoy things isn’t without any reason. Most streaming media platforms provide content like videos, series, or movies by buying the original creators' license. They also join the game by creating their own series or movies on a “real” budget. Take a look at Netflix, HBO, or Amazon Prime originals. They were creating their own movies and series with a guideline from their customer’s interest pattern. They provide quality over quantity. It builds customers’ perspective towards these streaming media as eligible platforms that they worth spent their pennies on.
• Pandemic shaped society.
  The last thing but had the most impact on the streaming media rise is definitely this year’s coronavirus pandemic. As we are currently passing through this pandemic disaster from early February until the end of the year, everybody seems physically and mentally impacted by this hard time. The pandemic makes countries and nations strictly limited physical contact, suggested social distancing, and released lockdown policies. Most people are now spending their daily activities at home, but still connected online, thanks to the internet connection. This pandemic already changed our behavior on consuming entertainment too. We are no longer watch the latest movies at the cinema or attending our favorite music concert easily. What we can do is now streams all of these entertainments online, from our home. Even teachers taught the course for their students online. This makes streaming media increasingly skyrocketed this year. People are now spending their money more on their internet bills and online media subscription. We are heading into a digitalized citizen soon.

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• The effect for both consumers and distributors
  There are some positive points we can get from the presence of streaming media platform. It is definitely impacted both the consumers and the providers. As the consumer, we can have more choices on the entertainment provided with eligible content. We can filter what we really want to consume and not wasting our time watching unwanted content. The key to gain consumer satisfaction is convenience. It is convenient to enjoy things related to customer interest, convenience on payments and subscriptions, and convenience on media accessibility. All of that enjoyment already packed into one. For creators, artists, providers, and distributors could gain more benefits from this streaming media thing. As this pandemic already crashes almost all business types, digital workers are still standing through this hard time. The internet and digital-related companies are making more millions of profit. Digital companies were actually not impacted directly by this pandemic. They even become the backbone of other companies to survive through this pandemic by providing and assisting them in making a profit from digital platforms. Selling products from websites, online orders, even making transactions digitalized. Artists, creators, and crews who worked on entertainment also positively valued, joining the streaming media market. They would to still have their jobs or even be flooded with jobs as the demand for this streaming media still raised higher through times.

There are many types of entertainment you could found around — the conventional or more modern and digitalized ones. As time and technology rolling, people are slowly moving into the digitalized one. It is up to you to choose which kind of entertainment that suits you the most. Are you ready for a change? Or stick into the old one?

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Contributor: Abdul Hamid