Photo courtesy of Netflix, Wikipedia
Netflix has become the one of the primary ways that society watches television shows and movies. With its streaming abilities allowing people to watch anything anywhere, nostalgic television shows that people might have missed when it was on TV are now available to watch. That is in addition to its own set of original content as Netflix has made a huge impact on the entertainment industry. It has even slowly started to stray people away from watching shows on cable as well.
This is no surprise though as much of our society has just gravitated to watching content on the go and at a time that is personally convenient to them. This is literally Netflix’s bread and butter and has kept over 90 million of its subscribers coming back for more. It also makes their subscribers use their service more often and for longer periods of time, as many users will often “binge-watch” their shows for long hours at a time.
Netflix also has a line-up of previously aired shows that had huge fan followings. These TV shows include “Friends,” “Dexter” and “The Office” that subscribers can watch at anytime. Not only does showing more classic shows attract people who watched them when they were on cable, but it also attracts the younger generation of viewers who were not able to see these shows when they originally came out on cable.
Not to mention that Netflix has also created some of the most memorable and popular shows that we have seen in recent time. Netflix originals like “Stranger Things,” “House of Cards,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Narcos” have been consistently racking up Golden Globe and Emmy nominations and wins across all categories over the past couple of years.
Now, this does not necessarily mean that cable TV should start digging its own grave. Plenty of people still tune in weekly to their TV sets to see the next episodes of their favorite shows. Shows like “The Flash,” “The Walking Dead,” “Game of Thrones” and “American Horror Story” are usually quite spoiler heavy so people may not want to wait till the whole season is on Netflix at risk of their favorite show’s biggest moments being ruined for them. Not to mention, “The Walking Dead” season seven premiere did draw in about 17 million total viewers, so it seems pretty clear that people are not ready to completely tune out cable TV.
So while Netflix has attained its arsenal of award winning original content and a not too pricy $7.99 subscription rate, it is not about to snuff out cable anytime soon. But if Netflix does continue its trend of creating more critically acclaimed content, we could be seeing less of cable TV and even more streaming services that will rival Netflix completely. With Amazon Prime, HBO GO and Hulu already becoming more popular as their services continue, it is entirely possible that we could see more and more streaming services coming to existence and beginning the end of cable TV as we know it.
tmoore3@ramapo.edu
