For the longest time, the streaming boom seemed like a dream from which we would never wake up. Content was king, and platforms scaled up quickly, stuffing their digital libraries with movies and TV shows that audiences, rightly or wrongly, assumed would live on forever.
Then came the news no one was prepared for: Last year, Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in a decade. If streaming’s Goliath was in trouble, what did that mean for the competition?
Audiences didn’t have to wait too long to find out as streamers began removing content from their platforms to cut costs. Warner Bros, the parent company of HBO Max, was the first to pull the trigger.
Last August, HBO Max pulled dozens of shows and original movies off its platform, from children’s programming, like Sesame Street spinoff The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo, to period dramas like Vinyl, and prestige picks like Minx and Westworld. Other streamers such as Netflix, Paramount + and Disney+ quickly followed suit, removing original series’ from its services as a move towards cost-cutting.
The appeal of erasure is two-fold. Firstly, there is a tax benefit for companies to scrap content from their platform. Secondly, streamers pay residuals to the writers, directors and actors of their original shows every year those shows remain on the platform. Get rid of the show, and you get rid of the residual.
Good news for the balance sheet, bad news for viewers who felt like rewatching Westworld.
This week Paramount + announced a slew of shows would be scrubbed from the platform, including originals Star Trek: Prodigy, Queen of the Universe, The Game and Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.
