Kriner1

Hannah Kriner

Mrs. Cramer

Comp 1 Pd. 7

10 January 2018

The War Between Netflix and Cable

For generations the people of the world have watched television on cable, they sit down

on a certain day, at a certain time, to watch the new episode of a popular show and sit through

the commercials, but that is changing. Netflix, it started out as a DVD rental company and

became a popular television streaming site viewers could watch anything they want, any time

they want, and the people using it love it, enough it may soon be the leading television power.

Netflix is becoming more popular than cable because their flexibility, variety, and its lack of

commercials.

For example, say Daisy watches a show on cable, either she sits down and watches it

once a week to watch it or she records the show and watches it when she has time to right? What

if Daisy does not need to record it on cable? What if she could just watch it on her own time, on

any device, she is not confined to one, or a set of televisions in her house. Daisy can watch

Netflix on her laptop, her phone, or any one of her handheld device. Netflix is not confined to

certain devices. The flexibility Netflix has to let any person watch what they want, when they

want is easily accessible. In addition, according to Mike Snider from USA Today, "Xfinity

customers will begin receiving Netflix on their X1 Cable and TV boxes," This allows anyone

who has an X1 Cable and TV box the ability to have Netflix on their TV. Say Daisy is a mom,
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she can make multiple sub-accounts on one Netflix to be used and specified for up to five people,

Netflix accustomed to the fact that many of its users are families who are the different accounts.

Similarly, wouldn't Daisy hate when her favorite show ends for the season and has

nothing else to watch? With Netflix, when it has a show or movie open for viewer consumption,

no failed recordings or Daisy forgetting to schedule a recording, it is just there. On the contrary,

Netflix does not have every show or movie in existence but their variety is large and diverse,

including their own shows and movies they make and label as "Netflix Originals," like the

award-winning House of Cards, and the popular Stranger Things. In fact, these qualities stated

previously are what is making Netflix more popular.

Netflix has partnered with smaller U.S. pay-V providers before and in September
announced a major integration deal with Liberty Global, which has more than 29 million
customers in 30-plus countries. The Comcast deal, Hastings said, is "a big boost in the
number of households that can get Netflix on their TV. (Snider)
According to this quote from Mike Snider, not only has Netflix partnered with Xfinity, they are

partnering with multiple other providers to expand their availability to their users of any

television source, this is another reason Netflix is becoming more popular than Cable.

Hastings has taken to declaring that Netflix is about to defeat Cable TV. In a letter to
investors, he proclaims that "Internet TV will replace linear TV," and virtually taunted
HO and other competitors with reminders of Netflix's advantages: "They have to attract
an audience for Sunday at 8 p.m., say. We can be much more flexible." Hastings even has
evidence to back up his belief that Netflix can take on HBO and win: according to the
Hollywood Reporter, Netflix now has 29.2 million U.S. subscribers to HBO's 28.7
million. (Maclean's May)
Furthermore, when shows or movies on Cable have commercials, everyone tries their

best to skip them. Whether it to pause it and fast forward through commercials later, or record

the show to fast forward through any part of it, the ability to fast forward is nice to have. Though

with Netflix, there are not any commercials to fast forward through in the first place, it is a

streaming site with no commercials.

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A Neilson report from 2014 showed that, in 2013, each hour of Cable television included
fifteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds of commercials ... That fifteen minutes and thirty-
eight seconds of commercials each hour equals nine hundred thirty-eight seconds...
Multiply the number of commercials per hour by the number of hours the average viewer
watches Netflix each day (938x 1.66) and you find that most skip 1,557 seconds- or
around 25 minutes- of commercials each day. Spread that over a year and voila! 157.87
hours, or just over 6.5 days... Networks are increasingly aware of the allure of not having
that many commercials. As CordCutting.com points out, this doesn’t only mean that
people are skipping more than six days of commercials; they're getting to watch more
than six days of the television shows, films and documentaries, they want. (Andrews)
This quote from Travis Andrews from Opposing Viewpoints in Context states that even

though some Cable companies are reducing the time of the commercials per hour, this still means

commercials will be a problem. People will still have to sit through boring commercials or find

some way to fast-forward through them, Netflix watchers never had that issue.

In other words, the ability Netflix has to be more flexible, to have more variety and to

have no commercials are the reasons it is becoming more popular than cable. Daisy won't have to

deal with the aggravation of not finding anything to watch. Daisy also doesn't have to deal with

her favorite show ending for the season and finding herself hung up on the cliffhanger it leaves

her on, with Netflix she can just watch through all of the seasons of a show is has. Finally, unless

a movie or show recorded she has to sit through and wait for the long and boring commercials to

be over to continue her show, but with Netflix there's no need to record it or fast forward through

them, to begin with, they aren't there. Finally, these examples are what make the Netflix users

happy, and that is why they are switching over to Netflix.

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Work Cited:

Andrews, Travis M. "Six days' worth of commercials: That’s how much watching Netflix instead
of cable saves the average TV Viewer annually." Washington Post, 11 May 2016, Opposing Viewpoints in
Context,

Link.galegroup.com/doc/A452088357/OVIC?u=pl1949&xid-ad5dd5e9

Driscoll, Molly. "Loyal fans spur comebacks of favorite TV shows." Christian Science Monitor, 23
Feb, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Snider, Mike "Watch Netflix over cable? Yes, it's for real." USA Today, 4 Nov. 2016, p. 02B.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

Link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A468889742/OVIC?u=pl1949&xid=41897079. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.

Weinman, Jamie 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 25 Oct, 2017.