McCracken1

Austin McCracken

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp 1

2 November, 2017

Netflix Growing

Though it started in the U.S. as a DVD rental company, Netflix has stuck to founder Reed

Hastings' belief that streaming video is the future. It has now grown into a multimillion dollar company;

first quarter revenues were more than $130 million higher this year over last. In comparison Netflix had

29.2 million subscribers, to HBO's 28.7 million. This success has led Hastings to declare that Netflix is

about to defeat cable TV. In a letter to investors, he virtually taunted HBO and other competitors with

reminders of Netflix’s advantages (Weinman). Netflix is taking over cable TV because it is flexible, has no

commercials, and has revived and included many old originals.

Netflix’s ability to be flexible is one of the multiple reasons that it is taking over cable television.

Netflix can be watched at any time of the day and all of its content is available. Cable TV programs are

on a schedule and only available at certain times. While Netflix programs are available all the time with

the ability to pause and fast forward. This makes it exceptionally beneficial for someone who has a long

work day and would miss the programs scheduled on cable. The programs on cable TV are mostly

available on Netflix or another source of online media. These can all be watched at any time and are

more convenient than the tight schedule of cable TV. Netflix also has the ability to be watched

anywhere, as in comparison to cable, which must be watched at home in front of a TV. This gives the

ability for shows to be watched anywhere at any time, which is a huge advantage.
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Another huge reason that Netflix is taking over cable TV is because there are no commercials.

This contributes to the fact that Netflix is much more flexible than cable TV and overall why it is

overtaking cable. If the average user spent as much time watching regular cable as he does Netflix, then

he would consume around 160 hours of commercials every year. That is equal to 6 ½ days, that is way

too much time to spend watching commercials. The ability to skip these commercials that Netflix offers

doesn’t only mean getting to skip 6 days of commercials but getting to watch an additional 6 days of

shows (Andrews). Howard Shimmel, chief research officer at Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting, said,

“consumers are being trained there are places they can go to avoid ads.” This is exactly what customers

are doing and Cable TV providers are trying to find a way to stop it. Time Warner Cable had gone as far

as cutting commercials in half during primetime shows, in an effort to compete with online media

(Andrews).

Time Warner Cable (TWC) is not the only company that has incorporated Netflix ideas. Comcast

has gone as far as partnering with Netflix to improve business, not only helping themselves, but also

adding customers to an already rapidly growing Netflix company. TWC customers will just need to sign

into Netflix on there X1 box and all of the features will be available. This is huge in the number of

households that can get Netflix, allowing the company to grow. The overall greatness of Netflix rubs off,

Comcast has greatly benefited from the X1 platform adding 170,000 subscribers in the last year. The co-

op has extended the great features and benefits of Netflix to many customers, saving them hours of

useless commercial time (Snider). Commercials are overall, one of the biggest reasons why Netflix is

taking over cable TV, Netflix is saving its user 6.5 days of commercials every year (Andrews).

Another reason that Netflix is overtaking cable TV is that pop culture has seen a boom of revived

shows and people enjoy watching them. Netflix has revived and gave a new life to shows like Fuller

House, and Gilmore Girls. They are doing this because they want to attract fans of existing content and

keep them coming back for more. Although, they do not just pick any show to bring back. They use
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factors like the size of the fan base and the passion of the fan base. These strategies have proven to

work fans, will show up for new stories with familiar characters. Those behind the shows hope that fans

will spread the word of the shows and help develop a growth in viewers. The loyalty of fans is spurring

comebacks of favorite TV shows and an overall improvement of business (Driscoll). This all contributes

to Netflix’s overtaking of cable.

Although Netflix has all these great abilities and features, it does not have the ability to be sped

up and watched at a higher speed. This is a reason for heavy criticism, but it is irrelevant. There is only a

small percent of people that actually perform speed viewing and it is heavily criticized itself. Speed

viewing cheapens the entertainment and does not allow the time necessary to soak in what was

happening. Mr. Hadawar, a co-host on a podcast, said, “I feel like your not even watching it, you’re

consuming it.” Many other people consider speed viewing to be insulting. Mr. Chen of “Slimefilmcast”

went as far as saying that speed viewing is a way of saying, “I don’t care how you wanted me to

experience this work you’ve created, I just care about the information exchanged” (Mele). This

information refutes the criticism of Netflix. Speed viewing is not a good feature, but a negative one,

robbing the consumer of entertainment.

Netflix is taking over cable TV because it is flexible, has no commercials, and has revived and

included many old originals. In conclusion cable TV is having a hard time competing with Netflix and

other online providers. This is in part of Netflix’s features and abilities that cable does not possess. Cable

TV is being overtaken and if they don’t do anything to improve it will shortly be a thing of the past.

Netflix has more advantages and cable can not come close to competing.
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Works Cited

Andrews, Travis M. “Six Days Worth of Commercials: That's How Much Watching Netflix

Instead of Cable Saves the Average TV Viewer Annually.” The Washington Post, 11

May 2016. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A452088357/OVIC?u=pl1949&xid=ad5dd5e9. Accessed

June 2017.

Driscoll, Molly. “Loyal Fans Spur Comebacks of Favorite TV Shows.” The Christian Science

Monitor, 23 Feb. 2016. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A444071127/OVIC?u=pl1949&xid=91168b14. Accessed

July 2017.

Mele, Christopher. “Too Many Shows? Just Speed Them Up.” Galegroup.com, 13 Dec. 2016,

link.galegroup.com.

Snyder, Mike. “Watch Netflix over Cable? Yes, It's for Real.” Opposing Viewpoints in Context

[Gale], Apr. 11ADAD,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A468889742/OVIC>u=pl1949&xid=1897079.

Weinman, Jaime J. “Killing Cable: with Higher Revenues and More Viewers, Netflix Believes

Its Defeat of Cable TV Is Finally at Hand.” Maclean's, 13 May 2013, p. 42. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A329730851/OVIC?u=pl1949&xid=f109205b. Accessed

June 2017.