With So Many Streaming Services, What Really Sets Them Apart?

In 1996, HBO launched a marketing campaign that helped the channel stand apart from not just its premium cable counterparts but all of TV’s broadcast networks. “A user gets to pick their own Netflix logo, and they get to say, ‘This is mine.’” It matters less, then, that Netflix’s overwhelming amount of original content doesn’t maintain a single thematic identity in the way that HBO’s antiheroes or NBC’s single-camera workplace comedies did over the past two decades. “Right out of the gate, Apple said, ‘Look, we’ve got great content, we’ve got great talent,” she says, referencing the Jennifer Aniston– and Reese Witherspoon–led series The Morning Show. They got the Jennifer Anistons and the Reese Witherspoons, but the impact seems pretty minimal,” Demas says, adding that as more services enter the market in 2020, Apple TV+’s success might look even slimmer. “If you were going to have a limited number of services in a house, to stick to an entertainment budget, then Netflix having something for everyone becomes more important than Netflix’s quality,” she says.