Recently, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings confidently said on an investor conference call that Netflix is in a good place because cable TV will be “dead in 5 to 10 years”.
Netflix has more than 220 million paying subscribers worldwide, but has lost up to 1.3 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada in the past three months, according to the company’s 2022 second quarter report. Despite the large subscriber base, Netflix still wants to expand the number of subscribers.
The recent selection of Microsoft as an ad-supported service partner, the launch of a low-cost subscription service with ads, and the fact that it will try to end account sharing are a series of moves that signal Netflix’s ambition.
However, when it became difficult to expand the number of subscribers, the company naturally wanted one of its competitors – cable TV – out of the picture.
Will cable TV really die out?
Compared to Netflix, cable TV is struggling to survive. The fact that TV ratings are declining and a large number of subscribers are going to streaming cannot be denied.
However, by choosing cable TV you don’t have to pay for the network and then pay for a platform subscription. Simply by turning on the TV and having a normal signal antenna, subscribers have access to a large amount of quality content.
The non-HD Netflix basic subscription package is said to cost $9.99 per month and is only available on one device. The standard package costs $15.49 per month and has the option to play on two devices at the same time. The highest tier package costs $19.99, offers HD quality and can be played on four devices.
It remains to be seen whether cable TV will really be “extinct in 5 to 10 years” as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings hopes.
Related Post: Netflix loses nearly a million subscribers in the second quarter, plans to launch cheap advertising memberships.