Seven years ago, Netflix released its first self-produced series, Lilyhammer. Since then, the streaming market has swelled into a multi-billion dollar business that is fundamentally changing the way we watch television today. With the worldwide launch of Apple + (read here, where and how you can watch Apple +), the balance of power once again fundamentally shifted: Apple attacks with its offer the previous top dogs Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Seven series and a documentation, the tech group has so far in the luggage.
On the 12th of November Disney + will be the next competitor in the starting blocks, at first not yet in Germany. More players are warming up for the coming year. Here the media scientist Susanne Marschall explains the impact of the change on the television market and on our personal TV consumption.
SPIEGEL: Ms. Marschall, Apple's streaming service is launched worldwide today - there have been no series and films to date. Nevertheless, can one already deduce where the company wants to go with Apple TV +?
Marschall: So far, we only know about the big casting coups, that's right: The streaming service will be about to start with the Jennifer Aniston comedy "The Morning Show" on American breakfast TV, Steven Spielberg is supposed to be the fantasy series Reissue "Incredible Stories". However, it will be decisive anyway, whether Apple also manages to develop really original films and series. Of course, all players in the streaming market have time and again to innovate. But for Apple that is much more true, because the group has to establish itself as a producer of in-house productions and win viewers. So far, he is only known as a tech company.
SPIEGEL : Why is Apple suddenly suddenly starting to produce its own content?
Marschall: Because the streaming market is already huge, but surprisingly still is not saturated - even if it still has to show which providers are left behind in this tough fight at the end. Disney is another player who will join soon. The streaming division goes live shortly after Apple.
SPIEGEL : Disney's business practices work quite differently than those of established streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime: The group produces hardly new, but filmed his archive again and again and absorbs other creative potential from the Marvel Studios and Pixar.
Marschall: It would be very unfortunate if this creative self-reliance is confirmed in the long run, after all, it is a company that was not uncontroversial in its golden age, but very innovative - the story of the animated film is not to think without Disney. But if in the future especially the own archive will be exploited, Disney will hurt itself in the long run, of course.
SPIEGEL : We are currently experiencing a change in the media world with the rapid rise of streaming services. How is our TV consumption behavior changing?
Marshal: At the moment, this change is so dynamic that no one can predict how we will watch TV in the future. Everyone, from producers to TV stations to viewers and film educators, has been overrun. We have to learn a lot again.
SPIEGEL : What, for example?
Marschall: For a long time, it was assumed that the audience was made up of couch potatoes that wanted to be spotted. That was wrong. Viewers today are looking for more complex content than ever before, as streaming providers like Netflix do. Incidentally, this also applies to the 50 plus generation, which is now also massively moving towards streaming. No one had expected that either.
SPIEGEL : So you also believe that the classic "crime scene" distant will soon be a relic?
Marschall: Many people - young and increasingly older - look at the public-law only news broadcasts. This is to be regretted, but is also due to the reaction of ARD and ZDF to the new challenge: It was more and more produced by the same, about the same talk shows with the same faces. Why you stubbornly cling to it, I do not understand. That is not promising.
SPIEGEL : But in the meantime there are also some innovations in the series area from the public-legal ones: such as the current highly acclaimed ZDF comedy "Fett und Fett" or the bank thriller "Bad Banks". In addition, the ARD has just announced to invest 20 million euros in the media library - here seems to take a rethink away from linear television.
Marshal: Compared to Netflix and Co., there are only a few lighthouse projects in the public sector. About the investments: This is certainly a real step, the media libraries are an important building block. So far, their programming is not up to date, especially in terms of clarity is still a lot of room for improvement. But if in the end only the episodes of the "Rosenheim Cops" are in the media library, that will not help much. There have to be more interesting, more sophisticated, more relevant programs. Also because I assume that a young generation is currently growing up, which is again more interested in political developments and thus also in relevant content.
SPIEGEL : You work as a university professor. What does the media consumption of your students look like?
Marshal: Students get their content primarily from streaming services. Bingewatching is still in vogue. On the one hand, they are open, but also impatient. They want a program to open up quickly, then stay tuned.
SPIEGEL : Is not there a contradiction in expectations? On the one hand, you want it fast and low threshold, but on the other hand, you then stay for ten hours.
SPIEGEL : Today, mass consumption is replacing a reading culture for many - and it is true that the story has to work very fast to keep up with it. And although, so to speak, the large supply of streaming content contributes to the fast pace of life in the world, but also serve the series, the need to retire from this hustle and bustle.
SPIEGEL : Which series are you most looking for?
Marshal: "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," this Amazon production about a New York housewife who becomes a stand-up comedian. She's so well written by the "Gilmore Girls" -maker Amy Sherman-Palladino that she almost enters into a parasocial interaction with the main character. You get so used to Miriam Maisel as if you were watching her live. This is so easy on the screen, but you have to be able to develop characters really well.
SPIEGEL : The elaborate production, lighting and tracking shots almost seem like a movie to "Mrs. Maisel".
Marschall: That actually has little to do with previous TV series. At the same time it would be great if you could see the streaming-providers synonymous with the original films on the aesthetics of a series like "Mrs. Maisel" refers. Unfortunately, the film history - not only classic Hollywood, Nouvelle Vague or New German Film - in many streaming providers only fragmentary and not curated available. I fear that the awareness of the history of film art is lost.
SPIEGEL : The next season of "Mrs. Maisel" will start on December 6th.
Marshal: I know. Although I deal professionally with series and films, so much has to look simple, I sometimes think: This is all life that you spend in front of the TV or laptop. But sure - on December 6, I know what I'm going to do.
