Streaming services have caused major disruptions to the world of scripted narrative since their inception. But when the realities of the COVID-19 lockdown emerged in mid-March with cinemas shuttering across the country and everyone suddenly realizing they were going to be stuck inside for an indeterminate period of time, the rise of streaming took on a new significance.

That significance was highlighted last week when Netflix CEO Reed Hastings acknowledged that subscriber numbers have exploded during lockdown. He wasn't gleeful about it, but the news accentuated how important at-home viewing had suddenly become in a world where we couldn't leave the house.

That's all good and well for Netflix, but the reality is that the streaming era is still in its nascent phase. With several major players still emerging, there are legitimate questions around how the COVID-19 lockdown will affect those imminent launches.

Disney+ managed to successfully get out of the gate late last year and has been deemed a massive success, thanks in large part to having a “killer app” in the form of the first ever Star Wars-centric live action series, The Mandalorian.

The launch of Apple TV+ made a significantly smaller splash around the same time, but that lack of blockbuster success is offset by the company's unquestioned dominance in other areas of technology. They're not primarily a content company, and can afford to build that new arm of their business with less urgency.

HBO Max, the service that combines the prestige of the HBO cable brand (The Sopranos, Game of Thrones) with the might and breadth of the WarnerMedia library (which includes enduringly popular television titles such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory, as well as a deep film library), finally announced its launch date: May 27^th.

Considering it's only one month away, the likelihood is that most of the country will still be in some sort of lockdown, which would suggest that demand will be high for new streaming options. But the COVID-19 crisis has had a separate adverse impact on the launch of HBO Max. As plans for the service were heating up, there was a considerable amount of fanfare surrounding the fact that they would launch with a special featuring the whole cast of Friends, together for the first time since the show went off the air.

It wasn't going to be an in-character reunion episode, but rather a retrospective special in which the cast would reminisce about the show and no doubt comment on its enduring presence in popular culture. That such a one-off was such a hot property says a lot about the importance of our collective connections to characters in screen narratives we remain highly attached to.

A Friends reunion special isn't exactly The Mandalorian in terms of must-see narrative, but it was something that would've garnered a huge amount of attention and curiosity, and would likely have been a driving factor in getting many new customers to sign up for HBO Max.

But unfortunately, they weren't able to get it in the can before the pandemic hit, successfully putting the kibosh on filming anything of this nature. HBO Max will still of course have Friends itself, but without the reunion special, it places the onus on the deep library of titles to be as alluring to prospective customers as actual new content.

The question of whether existing narrative will be enough of a draw also surrounds the launch of NBC Universal's upcoming streaming service Peacock. The service is already available to Comcast cable customers, and will see its wide rollout to the public on July 15^th.

While also principally reliant on library titles such as streaming favorite The Office, the service suffered a similar blow as HBO Max losing the Friends reunion, when this year's Olympics were cancelled. The service was going to launch alongside the massively-watched global sports event, which would've provided it with a huge amount of marketing muscle, but that's all out the window now.

So while these two new major players are facing dimming launch prospects thanks to COVID-related cancellations, there will no doubt still be a large demand for more streaming content if we all remain mostly confined to home base for the foreseeable future.

If we're not still stuck inside when they launch, that raises a whole other set of questions about how eager audiences will be to stay inside and watch television when the outside world suddenly beckons. Screen narrative hasn't seen this much upheaval since television was invented. It’s almost as entertaining to follow what will happen next, as it is the binge-worthy shows the industry doles out.