TV Meta

Overview

TV Meta, also known as React Meta, refers to a late 2021 to early 2022 period on the streaming platform Twitch, during which many prominent streamers watched TV shows and films live on stream, with several, including Pokimane and DisguisedToast, getting temporarily banned due to violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In January 2022, the TV meta became a viral subject of discussions online.

Background

While the practice of illegally broadcasting DMCA-protected content such as films and TV shows has been present on Twitch and other streaming platforms since nearly the point of their creation, with smaller channels getting away with hosting "viewing parties" due to going noticed, the trend did not become a mainstream phenomenon until November 2021.

The popularization of the trend started with prominent variety streamers such as xQc and HasanAbi streaming the competitive cooking show MasterChef on their channels.^[1] On November 25th, 2021, xQc watched and reacted to episode one of the show, starting the TV meta (YouTube^[2] reupload shown below).

Over the course of December 2021 and early January 2022, multiple prominent streamers joined in on the trend of watching TV shows or films and reacting to them, including Offline TV members Pokimane and Disguised Toast, who reacted to TV shows while streaming to a large audience on Twitch.

Bans

On January 7th, 2022, streamer Pokimane was banned^[3] for 48 hours over streaming Avatar: The Last Airbender. On that day, Pokimane tweeted,^[4] "the fire nation attacked," referencing both her ban and the show's intro (tweet shown below).

The ban prompted active discussions of the "TV meta" on social media platforms, primarily on Twitter, with streamers and other users expressing their views on the matter and posting memes about it (examples shown below).

On January 8th, 2022, streamer HasanAbi was banned over streaming episodes of MasterChef.^[5] On January 10th, 2022, Twitch streamer Disguised Toast was similarly banned over streaming episodes of Death Note.^[6]

Online Reactions

In January 2022, the TV meta became a subject of attention both from traditional and social media. Discussions surrounding the meta focused on some streamers seemingly preferring to illegally stream content with full understanding that they will be getting a ban, and the concerns that abuse of the TV meta may lead to policy changes on Twitch.

On January 8th, 2022, following Pokimane's ban, YouTuber^[7] Cr1TiKaL uploaded a video about the ban and the TV meta that gained over 3.3 million views in six days (shown below).

On January 12th, 2022, Kotaku^[8] published an article "What Is The Twitch TV Show Meta And Why Is It A Problem?," analyzing the "TV meta" and its problems. The streamer bans and the viral discussions surrounding the "TV meta" were also extensively covered by Dexerto.^[9][10][11]

Search Interest

External References