Stream Dreams: Companies Subscribe to Cord-Cutters

I’ve recently begun binge-watching House of Cards on Netflix. I finished the first season in about a weekend. Now I just want to hang out with Robin Wright and plot schemes. Please curb your judgement here, I know I’m not alone in this. In fact, there’s data to back me up on this.

Nearly 75 percent of Americans have admitted to binge-watching; 40 percent binge-watch through streaming services. Luckily, or not, depending on how you look at it, binge-watchers will soon have a lot more options to choose from.

Television Is Changing

Streaming services are dramatically changing the way we watch television. In 2014, traditional television viewership dropped 12 percent. Ted Sarandos, Netflix Content Chief, believes people watch television in a different way when using Netflix.

“Everything that’s watched on Netflix is watched super deliberately,” he adds. “It’s not background noise. It’s not something you turn on and go off and eat dinner. And [its] watching the same show until you’re done. This is much closer to books, where people say ‘I’m going to start Breaking Bad tonight.'”

New Companies Subscribe to Streaming

Thanks to the success of Netflix and other streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Hulu, other companies are hopping on the bandwagon. HBO Go will launch in the Spring. Back in January, Dish announced a streaming service with 12 networks–including ESPN. Just this week, Nickelodeon and Disney both announced specialized streaming services. 

Dream Come True or Oversaturation?

Soon we’ll have a streaming service for just about everything. This situation has its ups and downs. First of all, for cord-cutters, this is the dream. Being able to pick and choose your content for a fraction of the cost of cable is awesome. The downside to this is content spread across too many platforms. Having 10 different streaming subscriptions with one or two shows you like is not ideal.

While I’ll absolutely pick up HBO Go, I’m not too sure about the rest of them. If the demand is there, these companies will have no problem changing the way we watch television forever. We might even see the eventual extinction of cable. This idea is both exciting and a little scary.

Only time will tell when it comes to streaming services. Personally, I do miss the background noise aspect of traditional cable. I’m hoping the increase of streaming services will convince cable companies to be more competitive price-wise. Yeah, sure.

What are your thoughts on the increase in streaming services? What’s your limit when it comes to streaming subscriptions? Share your thoughts below.