At this year’s TV upfronts, one of the leading players in streaming opened its event with a video set inside its app’s instantly recognizable user interface. One after another, familiar TV characters and talent appeared on screen to flex an impressive catalog of IP across comedies, dramas, theatrical film, news, reality and live sports.
But it wasn’t Amazon, Netflix or YouTube showing off the power of their streaming TV apps—although they shared plenty of exciting content throughout the week. It was Disney, the 100-year-old media giant, putting Hulu at the top of its show, ahead of its extensive collection of successful networks.
And Disney wasn’t the only traditional “network” that prioritized its streaming offerings. Warner Bros. Discovery led with Max during its presentation, NBCUniversal hyped its Peacock originals, Fox made sure attendees knew about the youthful audience assembling on Tubi, and TelevisaUnivision touted 50 million monthly users on its ViX platform.
Just as telling, many of these companies focused almost as much on their tech and data offerings as their upcoming content slates.
As for the so-called “streamers”? They took steps to be more like the networks, announcing more live, ad-supported, mass audience programming—like sports, comedy specials and news—that have long been the bread and butter of traditional TV. And like their network rivals, these companies dialed up the glitz and the glam for their upfronts, trotting out big-time celebrities like Will Ferrell, Cameron Diaz and Billie Eilish.
This year’s upfronts have made clear that the years-long convergence of streaming and linear TV has reached a tipping point. While each presenter had its strengths and weaknesses, rooted partially in how they rose to power, they’re all playing the same game these days. In short, there is no longer a useful distinction between a “streamer” and a “network”—they’re all “convergent TV companies” now.
