Are Streaming Services Replacing Cable Television?

In the past, television was a revolutionary invention widely employed across the world. Today, however, some people have lost any respect or awe for cable television, choosing to instead hate it. This recent change in view is fair, too, as it is difficult not to question the practicality of what appears to be an outdated business model and form of entertainment. Consumers are forced to pay high prices for the select shows they want to see alongside numerous advertisements. When one considers this, it’s hard to see why streaming services like Netflix and Hulu aren’t more popular. The higher-priced cable offerings are simply less logical to purchase compared to the rapidly rising competition.

Amazon Prime, a service born out of the wildly successful company entering yet another market offers a wide variety of television shows, movies, music, and more. This robust package is one of many modern offers. Hulu is another streaming service that has been found to be a preferred alternative to the increasingly greedy cable companies. The king of streaming services, though, is Netflix. Known for being one of the first suitable replacements for cable in the form of streaming, Netflix quickly rose in popularity since its introduction to the world.

No matter the amount of logic or reason supporting the respective services, the popularity of the product is shown by simple facts. The fact is that although cable television services still hold a large body of subscribers, they are slowly losing more each year. Popular cable companies lost over 1.2 million subscribers in 2014, while in direct contrast, services like Netflix have steadily gained larger bases of customers year after year.  According to Revenuesandprofit.com, Netflix’s 2015 total revenue was $6.78 billion, up 23.2% from $5.51 billion in 2014. The eventual end of cable television could be a very real possibility.