January 1926, Soho, London. A skinny guy points a primitive camera at a doll. The choice is not aesthetic but practical: Stooky Bill, the now famous doll, does not move, does not blink, does not complain about the large lamps aligned in front of him. John Logie Baird – Scottish inventor, electronics engineer, today we would call him an “innovator” – still needs something to prove that a picture can travel. The silhouette of the doll is blurry, almost ghostly, but it works: this broadcast gave birth to “streaming” ten years before the BBC launched industrial television. The society of the spectacle is born. Thirty lines, five frames per second, a rotating disk, a shaking lamp. A technological prodigy.
With only a few days to go before 2026, the geopolitics of image transmission are being contested a few miles away: the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, the cradle of film studios; the city of Los Gatos, headquarters of Netflix, and the city of San Bruno, headquarters of YouTube, in the heart of Silicon Valley, a technology district with global cultural significance. There, the discussion about the price and the buyer of Warner Bros. focuses on the content production brand Paramount (which recently separated from the local operation of Telefe, the leading open TV broadcaster) and the streaming service subscription giant Netflix. Conflicting interests, allegations of market dominance and a $100 billion battle to keep the company founded at the beginning of the 20th century. Relevant data: Brothers Albert, Sam and Jack Warner made a technological investment in 1907, a used projector, and then they made their way to the public: they began projecting films for the miners in their town. It wasn’t until 1923 that they founded the studio that became one of the Big Five. In the same year the famous sign was placed on Mont Lee. In analog times and with limited-seating theaters in short supply, films could generate revenue far beyond Ohio theaters. Let’s look at it through the eyes of the present: a large initial investment in technology, the construction of these imposing studios in front of the hills that generated income for a long time…
Since the 1950s, television has become a huge device installed in most homes in the world’s major cities. The family living room was the algorithm. The model was perfect for two decades. Few channels, large audience, high ratings, enormous barriers to entry. Television was, without exaggeration, the most profitable cultural enterprise of the 20th century. Until someone suggested something that seemed counterintuitive: Pay to Watch. The cable also began as a technical solution, but found its role model in the 1970s. In 1972, HBO released films without cuts or advertising. The change is subtle but profound: less audience, more revenue per user.
But let’s go back to the future. 21st century: Netflix began as a distributor of films and series in red envelopes and only introduced its digital paid subscription model in 2007. Everything changed again. And many who imitate him challenge him. The streaming war had begun.
But shortly before that, in 2005, YouTube was founded and bought by Google the following year. “Broadcast yourself” was the motto. Last Sunday, the phenomenon of Argentine YouTube channels crowned its popularity with the presentation of the Martin Fierro Awards, which marked a local milestone beyond selfishness and business. Transformed into the digital version of FM, it conquered the media map with a sub-35 language and a heterogeneity that defines it. A mix of the marginalized, excluded and outcasts from prime time television, Nepo babies the massiveness of the 90s with idioms of post-rock & pop talk radio and the sound of Talk show and panelists. Our own “streaming” war is decided in this way and runs from Luzuriaga to the stained glass corners of Palermo, through the “border house” of Turco García and, above all, on the evening that can be seen this Saturday from the Huracán courtyard, which consecrates the success of Luquitas Rodríguez Stop the hand: to the pineapples. The case is unprecedented worldwide and the subject of regional study and emulation. “Just as other markets are experimenting with microdramas or 45-minute films, In Argentina there are channels with programs, high production capacity, experienced people and a lot of creativity. It’s something that people are already trying to reproduce in Latin America.”explained THE NATION weeks ago Daniela Guerra, head of entertainment for YouTube Latin America.
The contrast is formed by Ofelia Fernández’s production about being young and happy in the age of social networks and the success of a transmission from the bottom of the sea. From the economy of attention to the economy of affinity? That’s what analyst Ben Shapiro posited to express his skepticism about the money it costs Warner Bros. in a new scenario with volatile audiences, fragmented attention, algorithms, bots and artificial intelligence creations that replace the Stooky doll that will be honored in a few days.
Already in 1969, in the cult magazine playboya Canadian academic, preached: “I don’t like to tell people what I think is good or bad about the social and psychological changes caused by the new media, but if I have to express my subjective reaction as I observe the reprimitivization of our culture, I must say that I view it with utter disgust,” claimed Marshall McLuhan about the audiovisual age, but with more validity in the digital age. “Although I must say that I see the possibility that a retribalized, rich and creative society will emerge from this period.” When this revolution happens, it will be televised.
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