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Some holiday traditions may look different in 2020, but watching Charlie Brown specials in your home will remain the same. Well, only if you have AppleTV.

AppleTV, Apple’s streaming service, has acquired The Peanuts, meaning that holidays specials such as “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” will no longer be on cable TV as they have been for decades. The news sparked outrage — so much so that there’s a petition to put The Peanuts back on the air.

Apple did say that both holiday specials can be streamed for free this year, but for the following years, you’ll have to pay to watch Charlie Brown. I’m sure I would hear this news in any other year and brush it off. But this year, when normalcy is scarce, having a coronavirus-safe tradition taken away feels so unfair.

I think of my grandma and aunt, who would count down the days to watch the Charlie Brown specials. But this is where television networks are going. Streaming is an attractive technology for consumers, said Shuba Ghosh, a professor at Syracuse University’s College of Law.

“People can watch things wherever, they’re not tied to the cable or any particular device. So they’re trying to get a set of programs that would be appealing to the public release,” Ghosh said.

SU senior Steve Kemp said there are not only more options for shows on streaming services, but there are more movies available as well.

“I love it when streamers like Netflix invest large sums in prestige filmmakers and franchises.  Take something like David Fincher’s ‘Mank’ or Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman,’ which traditional studios weren’t shelling out for— these services are often the only ones willing to take those sorts of risks these days,” Kemp said.

The Peanuts move is reminiscent of Friends’ and Sesame Street’s move to HBO, as well as The Office’s upcoming move to NBC’s new streaming service, Peacock. Just as streaming services were motivated to acquire these shows, AppleTV has its reasons to acquire The Peanuts.

Charlie Brown’s audience age range and publicity could increase subscriptions to AppleTV, said Barbara Jones, a professor of practice in the television, radio and film department at SU.

“Generations of legacy ‘annual tradition’ and noise opportunities ultimately drive subscriptions to their service,” Jones said.

Despite the original shows available on streaming platforms, consumers still want classics, according to Washington Post columnist Alyssa Rosenberg. As TV barrels into streaming services, cable must think of its next move.

“I don’t know how cable networks are going to make it without forming some sort of partnership with a streaming service. There may just be too many cord-cutters for cable to survive,” Kemp said.

In a year where so many traditions have changed, The Peanuts’ move to AppleTV feels even more wrong. But the switch could have been easily predicted. Good grief.

Rachel Pierce is a senior broadcast and digital journalism and political science major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at repierce@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter at @rpiercesyr.

Published on November 11, 2020 at 10:44 pm