The fact that only a fraction of you have started using the streaming services that give me access to so much great video content. Netflix, by far the most successful Internet-based TV service, finished 2012 with only 27 million streaming subscribers in the U.S., compared to 99 million pay-TV subscribers across the leading cable and satellite TV providers.
Wait, Netflix has a quarter the viewers of all cable/sat TV viewers? Not inclined to call that "only a fraction", more like the hemorrhaging is well under way. Try taking all streaming video customers into account, I'd guess it's closer to half.
This "subsidizing" won't go on for long. My kids are growing with absolutely no notion of what "TV" (the ad-driven kind) is; those who do are used to a plethora of on-demand alternatives. 15 years from now, "channels" will be on-demand streaming sources unlike the schedule-driven content we have now.
The one thing I think is still missing: the streaming equivalent of TV's "here we are now, entertain us" - the pick a source and just watch a curated series of shows (not just same series episodes back-to-back).
A discovery function (previews of other shows? a program dedicated to previewing available programming?) would be desirable as well.
Something equivalent to channel-zapping, or a tv listing.
Netflix might be beginning to suffer from the "Paradox of Choice" - I don't want to spend my already-depleted willpower choosing among all the available programming.
Wait, Netflix has a quarter the viewers of all cable/sat TV viewers? Not inclined to call that "only a fraction", more like the hemorrhaging is well under way. Try taking all streaming video customers into account, I'd guess it's closer to half.
This "subsidizing" won't go on for long. My kids are growing with absolutely no notion of what "TV" (the ad-driven kind) is; those who do are used to a plethora of on-demand alternatives. 15 years from now, "channels" will be on-demand streaming sources unlike the schedule-driven content we have now.
The one thing I think is still missing: the streaming equivalent of TV's "here we are now, entertain us" - the pick a source and just watch a curated series of shows (not just same series episodes back-to-back).