Predicting a FAST-Approaching Future
In King: A Life, the first major biography of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in decades, Jonathan Eig breaks a great deal of new ground, thanks in large measure to his access to recently declassified FBI files. Early on, Eig captures dimensions of King’s parents that other biographies have overlooked, including the “lovely, dry” humor of King’s mother, Alberta—a warm, arch wit she clearly passed on to her son.
Eig recounts a story Alberta King liked to tell about a frustrating search for a rural Baptist church in Georgia where the senior Rev. King had been invited to preach a guest sermon. They stopped to ask an old man for directions. “Let’s see now,” he began, and offered a series of contradictory suggestions before admitting, “I reckon I don’t know where that church is.” After the Kings thanked him and drove on, within seconds they heard shouting and saw the old man running after them. They stopped and waited, and when he caught up, gasping for breath, he said, “I just saw my brother, and I asked him … and he don’t know where that church is either.”
In the last month of 2022, my inbox filled with predictions for 2023 from industry soothsayers of every variety, a phenomenon I found so fascinating that I gathered up the most interesting and posted them. Of course, the very nature of making predictions is sharing information you don’t really have and guessing at a future you can’t possibly see.
That’s one reason why I appreciate articles like Jason Thibeault’s Future in Focus column in this issue, which really tries to bring the present into focus—not so much trying to gainsay the future potential of free ad-supported television (FAST) as to make sense of its current ascendance and what its surging popularity tells us about why so many consumers seem to have cut the cable cord only to embrace a largely similar viewing experience. It certainly contradicts what quite a few of us assumed was motivating all of those cord-cutting decisions—and had plenty to say on the subject when it was happening.
But don’t feel too bad if you didn’t know. Chances are your brother didn’t know either.
Related Articles
Based on what I'm hearing from a wide array of streaming producers, the heightened demand for streaming live events that we expected to be a natural outcome of its COVID-era ascendancy is either evaporating or simply hasn't materialized.
07 Jun 2023
The popularity and growth of FAST show us that viewing behavior, despite the rise of streaming, hasn't really changed much at all. People want choice, but they want it in a way that meets their needs. FAST doesn't scrap the broadcast experience with which so many are familiar; it is evolving it in a way that broadcast could never do to improve upon the viewer experience.
09 Feb 2023
When it comes to knowing where to look to stay on top of the most meaningful developments in the streaming world, one simple maxim is not to always be tracking Netflix's stock price or churn rate to the exclusion of everything else, and at Streaming Media, we try to direct your gaze to the right places.
19 Dec 2022
Predictions gathered here from industry experts and analysts for the streaming industry 2023 in five categories: Monetization, AVOD, Hybrid, and FAST; CTV and OTT; Rights, Piracy, Security, and Privacy; Expansion and Contraction; Gaming and Esports; Content Delivery; and "2023 Will Be The Year Of..."
16 Dec 2022
The readers have spoken! Here are the top technical solutions of 2022, as determined by none other than the readers of Streaming Media.
16 Nov 2022
What lies ahead for Netflix in the ad-tier/hybrid era?
14 Oct 2022
Welcome to the 2022 Streaming Media 50, our annual list that foregrounds the industry's most innovative and influential technology suppliers, service providers, and platforms, as acclaimed by our editorial team. Some are large and established industry standard-bearers, while others are comparably small and relatively new arrivals that are just beginning to make a splash. All set themselves apart from the crowd with their innovative approach and their commitment to serve the customer and advance the industry. It's the fifth year we've capped the list at 50 companies.
07 Oct 2022