500 channels and everything’s on
Streaming television was supposed to kill cable and broadcast TV. Ad-free, endless choice, on-demand, and on your schedule meant the no-compromises television experience of our dreams. Except it hasn’t quite turned out that way and now it’s starting to look like the old models, the ones that buoyed cable and broadcast television for decades are rising like phoenixes from the ashes and will soon be coming back to you through, naturally, all of the best streaming platforms.
This week, The Information is reporting that Disney Plus is now considering adding a selection of genre-based channels that, instead of on-demand content, just run through a 24/7 schedule of content that will include commercial breaks.
If this sounds familiar, it only means you were watching cable and broadcast television in the years before the rise of Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video, and countless other options.
The details on what Disney Plus may or may not do are scant, but they are more than plausible. In recent months, most of the majors have reshaped their streaming platform strategies to offer a more affordable tier that, while still on-demand, includes commercial breaks (Amazon did it to existing Prime customers with little to no notice).
