It’s no secret that cable subscriptions are falling in number. Household cable subscriptions have fallen an estimated 10 percent from 2011 to 2015, while subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have increased rapidly. Additionally, the largest cable-buying age groups are seniors and adults above the age of 48. Meanwhile, the younger age groups are the most subscribed to the aforementioned streaming services.
As time goes on, this trend of favoring streaming services over traditional cable will doubtlessly continue. After all, what isn’t there to like about streaming services? There are no advertisements, they're significantly cheaper than cable, and you can watch whichever show you want at any time that is convenient.
So what exactly is keeping cable alive?
Sports networks are certainly popular, but even they are losing subscribers at a rapid pace. It seems that every other show is moving to streaming in one way, shape or form — sports will have to follow suit fairly soon, or they will eventually lose profitability.
Now that’s not to say TV sports are unprofitable yet. ESPN alone boasts nearly 90 million subscribers in 2016 (although perhaps it’s not much to boast about if they had nearly 100 million in 2013). It’s still a massive amount of income — it’s just going down is all.
Television-exclusive shows in general certainly keep cable subscribers coming, but countless popular TV shows, such as Parks and Recreation, go so far as to release entire seasons of the show onto Netflix shortly after it airs on TV. People who don’t have cable can simply wait a little longer — and watch a plethora of Friends episodes in the meantime without having to wait for scheduled reruns.
In fact, one huge sign of the massive exodus from television to digital streaming is the rise of digitally exclusive shows. With Orange is the New Black, a Netflix exclusive, achieving 16 Emmy nominations and four wins, it’s clear that a huge amount of production is being put into the digital world of content. More and more series are being produced as Netflix exclusives, along with digital streaming websites introducing premium content, such as YouTube with YouTube Red.
The world is becoming more and more convenient every day. Netflix began with renting movies, only streaming certain ones. Although Blockbuster had to file for bankruptcy protection, Netflix’s smart move was to invest more in streaming and less in renting movies by mail. So what started with going to the store to buy movies moved on to renting them, which then moved on to mail rental, which eventually moved on to digital streaming. Now we don’t even need a computer for digital streaming — your phone or tablet will work just fine. It is becoming less and less worth a customer’s money to pay for television, and producers are realizing this.
So, what does this mean?
This trend of convenience will likely continue. Consumers will continue to show interest in instant streaming and lessen interest in scheduled television. Free content will become more and more prominent, and subscriber-based digital content will do the same. Television, however, will almost certainly continue to fall. It’s hard to determine when TV will become obsolete, and that may not be in the near future, but TV investors are certainly not comfortable with its trends thus far — and things can only get worse.
Marco Omta is a sophomore studying music production. Do you prefer watching cable television or streaming services? Let Marco know by emailing him at mo183714@ohio.edu.
