If you regularly use Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, or similar streaming TV services, you've probably felt the scramble between different media vying for your all-important TV time. Even if you rely heavily on a TV platform, there is a whole cycle of information around the series to follow and contribute to, not to mention the friends and colleagues you tell about your news. favorite programs
It's no wonder some of us end up doubling down: texting and tweeting in the middle of an episode, sharing videos of ourselves on the couch with Instagram, posting comments on every YouTube video we have, let's take a look and try to stay as social as possible. possible while being held hostage by various screens.
For Netflix in particular, a platform so associated with the millennial generation, "Netflix and its calm" have their own Wikipedia page, it is very possible that more integrated social features will appear to improve the viewing experience and keep users on the platform. Netflix, instead of allowing them to use other services (WhatsApp, Twitter, etc.) to talk about what they just watched.
We spoke to Michael Pazaratz, CEO of the Rave Social Messaging app, to find out if more social features would be the way forward for this type of streaming TV service.
You, me and the TV screen
(Image credit: Rave)
If you're wondering what an app has to do with it, Rave was created five years ago with the goal of integrating more social features into today's streaming culture.
The iOS and Android apps essentially sync videos (or music tracks) from Netflix, YouTube, or Vimeo between you and your friends' smartphones or tablets, allowing them to comment and reply to you knowing you're the same. place. in a video, while text comments are overlaid on/below the stream.
But given the rapid shift from more precisely paced scheduled programming to the benefit of on-demand monitoring, this social element is harder to bring back than ever.
"Now you can watch what you want, where you want, when you want," he says. "There's no reason to gather around the TV at 9pm anymore, if you can just fit an entire series on your iPad. And while it's generally a positive (and irreversible) phenomenon, it has resulted in a shift from the vision to solitary vision, and something has been lost in the process."
Large-scale shows like GoT, or the upcoming Game of Thrones news, attract millions of viewers when new episodes arrive.
(Image credit: HBO)
But how can synchronized videos and messaging features help? "Arguing over text or voice recreates the social dynamic of being in the same room. Sometimes you just have to know what you're watching together."
Of course, any well-publicized TV show can attract a huge audience when a new episode drops, whether it's online or on terrestrial television. A study by the electronics company Epson also found that more than half of parents surveyed in the UK saw television as a social activity that "could help bring families together".
But to connect on a larger scale, the act of commenting during real-time video is already gaining traction. Twitch feeds, Facebook Live videos, and YouTube radio stations allow users to leave comments and feedback on what they're watching, meaning viewers can collectively participate rather than an experiment. purely lonely
Twitch popularized streaming, with viewers responding to streams collectively in real time.
(Image credit: LaComparacion)
This is a much more common phenomenon in China: online videos often include a sequence of "flash comments," named after the quick shots that dominate the screens of Space Invaders' arcade-style cabinets. These sharp comments are superimposed on the image itself, rather than below or to the side. The typed thoughts, reactions, emotions, and exclamations of your various audience members are fused with visual information displayed on screen (via LogicMag / @xuhulk).
You may think that texting to movies is not serious enough, but it is the most general trend of a high generation in social networks, who naturally look for a purpose for those social functions in all of them. content types
According to Hannah Marcus, a strategist at media consulting firm Discover.AI, things aren't stopping there either, with the rise of social media platforms that see people "write and communicate directly on the internet." content they see, which they then mutated by formally interacting with the content itself (for example, covering shocking scenes)."
Marcus adds that "the United States and the United Kingdom are increasingly facing multiple claims, as evidenced by the increasing use of subtitles and multilingual content (distributed through Western platforms). But we are far from this kind of collective experience. from various points of view."
What does this have to do with Netflix?
GLOW Season 3: Netflix has pushed its own original content to become less reliant on licensing older shows.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Until now, TV streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu resisted too many features that interrupt or hinder the content that viewers see, many of us pay this subscription to eliminate irritating commercials in the media. in the middle of our shows.
But mindsets are changing and Netflix is one company that has constantly tinkered with its services to appeal to a wider audience, going from a DVD rental service to a veritable monster of online TV streaming a big producer of original content. .
The Netflix app also allows you to "share" the movies or TV shows you watch on social media. Try an "Extras" discovery thread that provides you with insights and previews on your favorite titles. Why not the comments of the next ball?
"Without innovation, even the best products and the best business models are reaching their limits," Pazaratz said, referring to the recent stagnation of Netflix's growing subscriber base. "While new programming is crucial, users are also looking for new and exciting ways to enjoy it. With increased competition, if Netflix doesn't innovate, surely others will."
Ok, but... is it something we really want?
(Image credit: Dolby)
Pazaratz is quite categorical: viewers want: "How many people go to the movies alone? Or a music concert? Entertainment has always been a social activity and, given the opportunity, people choose to enjoy it together.
However, this does not seem to allow those who like to watch a few episodes of friends alone before bed, or even go to the cinema or theater to enjoy the anonymity that reigns in the crowd. There are those of us who like to consume content in a more introverted way, away from the social pressure of discussion in more public forums like Twitter.
One of Netflix's strengths is that it focuses on the content you're watching, with no ads to interrupt you or too much of the outside world, unless you want it to, of course. Streaming TV services may tend to become more social in the future, but they'll need to be careful not to lose sight of why people are subscribing and focus more on social interaction like the TV shows and movies that feed it.