National Streaming Day is an

unofficial holiday A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...

occurring on May 20, intended to celebrate

streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

. It was established in 2014 by

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

. In recent years, some streaming services have used the holiday to offer streaming promotions or discounted products.

Origins

National Streaming Day was started by the streaming platform

, initially to celebrate the anniversary of their first streaming device launch, The Netflix Player, on May 20, 2008. The first holiday was celebrated on May 20, 2014. It began as a celebration of streaming, with users of streaming platforms ''"encouraged to stream at least 60 minutes of their favorite entertainment today and share their selection using hashtag."'' More recently, the holiday began to see

streaming service Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

s make announcements of upcoming content and/or releases.

often offers discounts on their devices, such as Roku Streaming Stick+ and Roku Ultra. They also offered free access to normally exclusive content that would require payment or subscription. This was following a partnership with

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

to offer some of their exclusive content for free on May 20. On National Streaming Day 2020,

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and Roku announced a collaboration to release exclusive news and series sneak peeks.

Announcements

On National Streaming Day 2020,

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

announced the release of Muppets Now, an unscripted Muppets show to air on

. It also used the unofficial holiday to announce a monthly bundle deal where the three streaming services were available for $12.99 a month. Disney used May 20, 2020 to also announce the release of new content, the film

Artemis Fowl ''The Fowl Adventures'' is a series of eleven fantasy novels written by Irish people, Irish author Eoin Colfer revolving around various members of the Fowl family. The first cycle, ''Artemis Fowl'', follows Elf (Artemis Fowl), elf LEP Reconna ...

. During the same year,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

used National Streaming Day to announce the return of Peyton's Places for a second season. In 2021, Roku announced the release of their new

Roku Originals The Roku Channel is an American streaming service which launched in September 2017. In 2021, The Roku Channel began releasing original programming branded as "Roku Originals", including acquisitions from the defunct Quibi service. Original prog ...

on National Streaming Day.

References

{{reflist Streaming television May observances Unofficial observances Recurring events established in 2014