Online streaming and Documentaries
In today's world, streaming services are the main way we all intake movies, TV series and any form of entertainment. If you want music you have a variety of platforms such as spotify, anghami and even apple music. When it comes to film and TV shows: Netflix, Hulu, wavo and even youtube are being consumed on a daily basis in order for our entertainment needs to be fed.
The genre to have the biggest growth due to these online platforms are documentaries. Every week there are new documentaries on Netflix. Some stellar documentaries get recognized and win a multitude of awards proving how these “exclusive” documentaries all have something to offer to any audience. One big example would be the “Amanda Knox” documentary and how much buzz it created for itself when it came out. Everyone who had Netflix watched it and was baffled by how amazing it is. It’s like that is the gateway drug in order to get into documentaries. Just the ease of access to the masses really pushes the genre into mainstream as every story tells an amass of truth in them.
With the mass multitude of the number of documentaries coming out and the ones already out, it seems like there is a flood of documentaries to watch which makes the genre a bit overwhelming in my opinion. With a new one coming each week the market has become super competitive to see which documentary will be the next “Amanda Knox” of its kind.
Just because there is such a huge amount coming out all the time it makes it extremely difficult for a new documentary to get the same retention as the bigger ones. Not just that, getting approved to get on a streaming platform is very tedious and the platforms are very picky on what goes up or not.
References-
Entertainment, T. (2020, April 14). The Absolute Best Documentaries on Netflix. Retrieved April 23, 2020, from https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-documentaries-on-netflix-streaming
Kaufman, A. (2017, April 18). Documentary Sales Are Surging, But What's Driving the Competition? Retrieved April 23, 2020, from https://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/documentaries-sales-netflix-amazon-hulu-bubble-1201806552/
McDonald, K. A. (2018, November 9). Digital Platforms Boost Documentary Financing. Retrieved April 23, 2020, from https://variety.com/2018/film/awards/documentaries-bank-on-digital-platforms-1203020211/
Shana Lebowitz, M. T. B. W. (2020, January 16). 11 Netflix documentaries you can stream this weekend that will make you smarter about business. Retrieved April 23, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/business-documentaries-on-netflix-watch-instantly-2016-1