Has Streaming Killed Cable?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Have streaming platforms killed cable TV for good? Recent trends seem to be indicating that that’s the case.
During Q2 of 2024, cable TV companies such as Comcast and DirectTV lost over 1.6 million customers. Even more shocking is that this isn’t the first time they’ve faced such major losses.
MSN reported, “In 2023…the industry lost 1.7 million subscribers, or in 2022…it lost 1.8 million subs.”
The 1.6 million lost subscribers accounted for 6.9% of customers. MSN reported that according to analysts, this won’t change any time soon.
“There’s no reason to think the slide is going to slow down at all, analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson write: ‘It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no longer any floor,’” they shared.
Streaming, meanwhile, continues to take over TVs.
The Yellow Jacket reported that “83% of homes use some sort of streaming service, and over 50% are subscribed to four or more services. Streaming has seen such an increase over the last several years, and nothing is going to stop it.”
In June, streaming dominated viewing time.
Nielsen reported, “According to Nielsen’s June 2024 report of The Gauge™, time spent streaming soared to 40.3% of total TV usage, topping the previous single category record set by cable in June 2021 (40.1%) and notching the highest share of TV ever reported in The Gauge.”
Cable, on the other hand, only accounted for 27.2% of viewing time, while broadcast earned 20.5%.
Although streaming is outperforming cable by a long shot, only one company remains consistently profitable: Netflix. Movieguide® reported:
Netflix is the only streamer to consistently turn a profit, while the other platforms are fighting for the lives of their companies. This is because the boom of the streaming market inadvertently killed both the box office and cable, which had been the primary income sources for Hollywood studios for decades.
This has left many studios, like Paramount, in dire straits as their future rests on streaming, which is currently losing these companies billions of dollars every year. Even though many of these major studios still hold the largest chunk of viewership when streaming and legacy media usage are combined, per a new metric from Nielsen, their audience is slipping, while companies built from the ground up on new media, such as Netflix and YouTube, only continue to grow.
Overall, though, streamers seem to have a bright future. Cable on the other hand? It may soon join CDs, VCRs and other retired forms of entertainment to become a thing of the past.
