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Issue 54: December 2, 2019

Baby Yoda is the hottest meme on the internet right now, and it's all due to Disney+ and its hit new show, The Mandalorian. This week, we explore how shows exclusive are not only shaping the cord-cutting industry but our wider culture.Read on to find out more in this week's Stream Report.

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Streamer's Spotlight: Baby Yoda Memes

Streaming Service Exclusives Are Now Influencing Culture

It was clear from the online chatter that Disney+ would be a big success. And when the service launched with over 10 million subscribers on the first day, it was evident that Disney+ was a winning bet for one of the oldest production companies on the planet. But what no one appeared to anticipate was how much Baby Yoda would be the star of the show --- as well as an instant meme, and a reflection of how streaming services are shaping the industry

The Old vs. The New

Traditional TV (both cable and over-the-air broadcasts) have always been a part of the wider culture. But Netflix changed the game around 2009 when it launched its on-demand streaming option. Since then, the number of streaming services available has exploded. There are now 

well over 100 streaming services

on the market. Although a few have gone belly-up, new entries are popping up here every even faster.

While both traditional TV and TV streaming deliver content, traditional TV lacks the type of shareability that digital streaming currently possesses. Yes, traditional cable TV and over-the-air broadcasts influenced discussions at the water cooler and in news mags. But we currently live in a society obsessed with sharing, especially through memes. Simply put, traditional TV couldn't be shared this way, so its impact on the wider culture was limited.

And distinctly, streaming TV has the added impact that even non-viewers of a show can be aware of what's happening thanks to social media sharing. This gives it a larger impact than traditional TV, making streaming TV almost inescapable.

Screenshots to memes

Memes now drive our culture, but they couldn't have had streaming services like Netflix not taken off so dramatically. Now, we have the ability to screenshot the action on most services (with a few exceptions), add some funny, out-of-context text, and share away. Baby Yoda is just one of the latest, but many of the most popular memes are now screenshots from popular TV programs that are either streaming service exclusives or only available through on-demand streaming services. 

In fact, some of the most popular memes of 2019 involve either videos uploaded to social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter) or are screenshots from TV programs. In fact, on its list of the Best Memes of 2019,

Esquire

highlights several that never would have existed without cord-cutting exclusive, such as

Bird Box

and

Marie Kondo

(Netflix exclusives) and

Game of Thrones

(HBO exclusive). 

Meme-driven viewing

Baby Yoda is a good measuring stick for what streaming services and the entertainment industry as a whole want. They want shareable content, and ultimately, it's better for them if their content gets turned into memes. It means more interest in their programming and more sign-ups. It's free advertising.

It's also more incentive to create exclusive content. Going forward, we can likely expect content producers to design their programming in ways that encourage screenshots and memes, to include drawn-out scenes and pauses that make it easy to capture the moment and edit it for sharing.

This Week's Streaming Guide

1. History Channel's 'Vikings' Returns for Season 6

History Channel's hit show

Vikings

makes its season 6 return this Wednesday at 9 PM EST

.

-

F

lixed

2. 'Fuller House' Returns for Its Last Season, and without Lori Loughlin

Netflix's

Full House

reboot,

Fuller House

, returns to Netflix this Friday. Season 5 will be complete without Lori Loughlin's character Becky, which instantly makes this a season to watch if nothing more than to see how Netflix pulled it off. -

Woman's Day

News and Industry Developments

1. Comcast and Spectrum Raising Prices for TV and Internet

In what feels like an annual tradition, Comcast and Spectrum are increasing prices for their TV and Internet packages.-

Cord Cutters News

2. Netflix Will Soon Be Disabled on Older Roku Devices

If you're still using an older generation Roku device, you may want to upgrade soon, especially if you're a Netflix subscriber. -

TheWrap