Too much: Why the streaming wars between Apple, Disney, HBO and more are ruining TV

They say you can’t have too much of a good thing, but the many corporations that produce television are out to prove that you can. 

There's just too much TV. There was too much in 2018 and 2017, too, and probably even before 2015, when FX chief John Landgraf, coined the term “Peak TV” to describe the then-400+ scripted TV shows on the air. This year, there are more than 500. And that doesn’t count reality shows, talk shows, documentaries and everything else.

Peak TV was supposed to represent the height of the TV industry, the point at which no more shows could possibly be created until a bubble burst and the number of series – and possibly networks that aired them – diminished wildly. 

But that’s not at all what happened. The TV bubble hasn’t burst. It has inflated faster than you can binge-watch all 263 episodes of “Friends.”
 

This month has seen the debuts of Apple TV+ and Disney+, two streaming services from two of the biggest corporations on earth. 

They've come to challenge behemoths Netflix and Amazon, and to lesser extent Hulu (which is majority owned by Disney), and to forge a future in an entertainment industry in which technology has completely upended the way audiences experience art. Or, to be as capitalism-focused as the streamers: an industry in which technology has completely overturned how consumers devour content. The near-future of TV promises an arms race to rival the money spent on the space race, as two more media companies, NBC Universal and WarnerMedia, join the fray next year with Peacock and HBO Max. 

Read More (...)