Streaming Wars, July 2021: Quiet with a side of controversy

Netflix continued to deliver lots of originals and Disney got into some hot water over Black Widow, but the streaming wars were mostly quiet this month.

It’s time for another edition of Streaming Wars, the monthly series where we track what streaming services are winning the fight for your time and money, and which ones are getting clobbered on the battlefield.

Here’s how it works: every month we give points to different streaming services based on how much content they brought the previous month, how good it was, how many subscribers they gained, what moves they’ve made to better position themselves, etc. Then we record it all on a big living graph that traces the history of this, the greatest battle of our times. Head here to check out the graph, and look below to see who got what points in June 2021:

Paramount+

The big gets for Paramount+ this month were Behind the Music and the debut of A Quiet Place Part II, which has already been in theaters for a while. Not a great month for the newly christened streaming service. Points: +1

Netflix

Fear Street, Masters of the Universe: Revelation and especially Outer Banks season 2 supplied Netflix with a stream of buzzy new original content in July, while the Twilight Saga headlined a nice chuck of library titles. I dunno whether to give or take away a point for Sexy Beasts. Points: + 3

Disney+

The final couple episodes of Loki got the month off to a good start, with Premier Access versions of Black Widow and Jungle Cruise also generating plenty of buzz for Disney+. That said, there was also a fair amount of controversy surrounding the Premier Access strategy in relation to Black Widow in particular, so it was a mixed bag for the streamer. Points: +2

Hulu

Hulu had some neat originals this month, including music documentaries like Summer of Soul and McCartney 3,2,1, but it was mostly just library titles for Disney’s little side project. Points: +1

HBO Max

Between a Gossip Girl reboot and the new Space Jam movie, HBO Max had some buzzy titles in July, but nothing that blew the needle off the compass. And FBOY Island got attention for all the wrong reasons. Points: + 2

Amazon Prime Video

The most prominent Amazon Original this month and was probably The Tomorrow War, and that got hammered a fair amount, while stuff like El Cid and Making the Cut mostly flew under the radar. There’s good library titles on there, but there’s good library titles everywhere. Points: + 1

Apple TV+

Apple TV+ may not have a ton of content, but what’s there is of a high quality. July brought us new episodes of shows like Central Park and Lisey’s Story, as well as the premieres of Schmigadoon! and Ted Lasso season 2. Points: + 2

Peacock

Peacock didn’t get any big originals of note in July, but there were some solid library titles, including the John Wick and Nightmare of Elm Street movies. Plus it broadcast the Olympics, which counts for a lot. Points: + 2

Check out our full living graph here:

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