That's a wrap for streaming boom

Show cancellations amid slowing subscription figures it’s been a tough year for the streaming services once considered the future of entertainment, and with tax breaks for film studios under threat, things may be about to get worse

- Katie Rosseinsky

THE world of streaming, once hailed as the future of entertainment, is in flux. HBO Max's glossy Gossip Girl reboot; Netflix's mind-bending period piece 1899; and Uncoupled — the rom-com created by Sex and the City’s Darren Star — are among the shows cancelled by streaming services recently and the “In Memoriam” list just keeps growing.

Warning signs emerged in 2022 when Netflix reported a drop in subscriber numbers for the first time in over a decade (its share price promptly dropped by more than $50 billion in one day last April). It eventually managed to exceed subscription targets for the year’s final quarter — but the streamer’s chief financial officer Spencer Neumann had already confirmed it would be “pulling back” on spending.

Like Netflix, Warner Bros, Discovery (the parent company of HBO Max), and Disney have recently made redundancies; in November, Disney chief executive Bob Iger reportedly acknowledged that the company must “refocus on making its streaming services profitable rather than just adding subscribers”.

What triggered all this? Up until about a year ago, streaming services “were judged pretty exclusively on subscriber growth”, says Fred Black, research manager at analytics firm Ampere Analysis. “Shareholders weren’t so interested in whether the service was actually making a profit — it was much more important to be attracting new subscribers, continually growing.”