I read an article off of the New York Times website, titled “Cable Is Holding Web TV at Bay, Earnings Show", written by Brian Stelter. Watching TV over the Internet is becoming more and more important to the television industry, and the wealth of television content available online is growing by the month at places like Amazon Instant Video, Blockbuster On Demand and Hulu Plus, as well as on set-top boxes like Apple TV and Roku. However, despite this growth and attractiveness to new technology and the flexibility of being able to watch what you want when you want with limited or no commercials, the vast majority of consumers out there are still tying themselves down to a cable or satellite subscription package with many channels, robust pricing and multi-year contracts. The article finds that people are using sites like Netflix as supplements to cable and not replacements, and it will still take some time for these online services to mature enough (as well as for broadband Internet to be more accessible and affordable) before people completely turn away from Comcast and DirectTV en masse. The choice quote from this article was what helped me understand how the cable and satellite industry was feeling: “’When Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers, …the fear of cord-cutting goes away a little.’” Certainly, in my view, companies like Time Warner, AT&T U-Verse and Dish Network can still stay optimistic that people will come to them for television rather than the Internet for tradition’s and convenience’s sake.
Stelter, Brian. "Cable Is Holding Web TV at Bay, Earnings Show." The New York TImes (2011): 30 Oct 2011. < http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/business/media/cable-tv-holding-web-rivals-at-bay-earnings-show.html>.
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ReplyDeleteHi! This is an interesting article and one that is very newsworthy at the moment and extremely apparent to my personal life. I am an exchange student at SJSU so am only here for a semester, as such, I do not own a TV nor do any of my housemates. Hulu has become my best friend in times of deep procrastination, and while my dependence on the website has become frighteningly severe, the concept of replacing it with my television at home is inconceivable. I agree with your point that online tv sites will become a complementary medium to traditional cable channels. I like the quote you used in your post which summarises the feelings of the cable networks; in the current market Netflix holds no serious competition. This is a really interesting article and I have many journalism students who are investigating Netflix and this topic so it is definitely very relevant to current affairs.
ReplyDeleteHey great job with your post, and thanks for sharing it with us. I also agree with you that people online use online TV as an alternative to Cable but I dont see cable going away anytime soon.... I have a netflix account where I watch movies and tv shows through the Wii. This is great however they are very limited with their selection. I also get shows through netlix mail, but it takes a few days to get a new disk. We have comcast, and i love the that I can catch up on my TV shows anytime I want. I personally dont like watching TV through my computer, just my preference:) This was a very interesting article and although Hulu and other things similar to it are getting popular, I think Cable will be with us for several years to come:)
ReplyDeleteYea its pretty much going to be over for cable providers they are going to continue to lose money and costumers. Now days people do not even really need cable to watch tv they only need the internet. And there are so many sites that allows you to watch tv and movies for free why would anyone want to pay for cable. I basically always watch tv on my computer or my phone. I am never at home when things i like to watch are on tv anyway so I just watch it online because it does not have commercials.
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