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76% Of Netflix Subscribers Think Netflix Can Replace Traditional TV (cordcutting.com) 160

Posted by msmash from the cord-cutting dept.
An anonymous reader writes: It turns out plenty of people think Netflix is ready to replace their traditional TV. According to a survey on AllFlicks (Editor's note: the site is Netflix focused, so it's not really a neutral audience), 75.6 percent of Netflix subscribers said that the on-demand movies and TV shows streaming service has grown good enough to replace whatever the traditional TV has to offer. The participants, however, also noted that the streaming service still can't replace live sports coverage or the experience of the movie theater. In some other news, Netflix knows which picture and video you're likely to click.
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76% Of Netflix Subscribers Think Netflix Can Replace Traditional TV More

76% Of Netflix Subscribers Think Netflix Can Replace Traditional TV

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  • Thankful (Score:3, Funny)

    by lw54 ( 73409 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @05:13PM (#52039517)

    If Netflix provided the movie theatre experience, I would cancel my service.

    • If Netflix provided the movie theatre experience, I would cancel my service.

      Ha!. I was wondering why that would even be mentioned. I suppose if they really wanted a movie experience, they'd need to do it via Oculus Rift, where you can look around at all the people disturbing you, and maybe even get stuck in a bad seat.

      • They should also stick ten minutes of commercials telling you to turn off your cell phone to the beginning of every movie you watch.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lumpy ( 12016 )

        They also need to make the floors sticky. EVERY theater I have been in the floor is incredibly sticky.

        Also add in the random nasty fart smell once in a while to make it a very NYC style theater experience.

    • So they just need to add some sticky floors, loud teenagers, stale popcorn, a half hour of previews, and someone texting during the movie?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

      I like sports, but I don't need them. I mostly don't like TV, but do miss it a little, sometimes. Netflix, for $9/month does maybe 80% of what I want. Compared to the $50 I'd be paying for TV, it's an acceptable tradeoff, but not quite a full replacement. The Netflix exclusives like Daredevil and Longmire help make up a little bit of that difference.

  • Its coming (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mr D from 63 ( 3395377 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @05:13PM (#52039521)
    With ESPN now talking to HULU, we are moving closer to a break of the sports content lock that cable has held, and hopefully we'll have IPTV choices to suit our needs from true competitors. Cable is going to have to adjust. With smartphone habits overtaking TV watching anyhow, its a matter of time.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Football fans need more than just ESPN. During the college and pro seasons I watch multiple ESPN stations, FoxSports, the NFL Network, and all of the broadcast networks that broadcast games live..

        I think once the scales start tipping enough. Those other sports networks are gong to have to move like ESPN is doing. They can't afford to lose younger viewers, because they may not get them back. I used to think it would be locked up a lot longer but I'm starting to see the ice break.

      • True. ESPN itself seems to offer mainly talking heads flapping their gums and filling time. The games themselves are what people really want to see, and those are scattered on a number of channels.

      • >> During the college and pro seasons I watch multiple ESPN stations, FoxSports, the NFL Network, and all of the broadcast networks that broadcast games liv

        This. Eventually I just said "fuck college football - I can't even find my team anymore" and cut the cord. Now all the sports I watch either comes over the local HD broadcast or streamed through Russia/Europe (e.g., March Madness).
      • We cancelled cable during football season, and found that, as college football fans, most of the games worth watching are on network TV, anyhow. The others I would listen to on the radio while doing chores. When the Big10 network was created and initially not available on TW Cable there was lots of fan bitching, but it was not at TW, it was at the Big10 for what was seen as a money grab. I would bet that if ESPN is feeling pinched, the smaller networks will feel it worse.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        How much football do you watch every week? Seems like you must spend a lot of time watching TV. I'm just wondering how typical you are of the average American football fan.

    • Ummm. For those of us who don't watch sports, that content lock is one of the reasons to use Netflix.

    • Sports is a special case, because it actually requires high-quality video streaming to eliminate motion blur, so it is inherently higher bandwidth.

      • People watched sports for decades over standard-definition analog cable TV, whose usable resolution (based on luma bandwidth and Nyquist's theorem) is 320x480i at 60 fps. Does a match streamed at this resolution really have a higher peak data rate than, say, an action movie streamed 640x480p at 24 fps?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Koatdus ( 8206 )

      I haven't had cable in years.

      I have never been much of a TV watcher but I find that between Netflix, local broadcast (over the air) tv, and the 4 sports bars within 5 miles of my house I am just fine without cable.

      Netflix and before that blockbuster (rip bb) lets me watch a movie at home once in a while.

      Sports...There are 3 teams I care about and two of them are local and likely to be on ota tv; plus sports are much more fun to watch at a sport bar with a bunch of people around you cheering, then they are t

      • There are 3 teams I care about and two of them are local and likely to be on ota tv

        That works for you, not so much for fans of the pro team that moved out (e.g. Rams fans in Los Angeles and St. Louis), the pro team to which their favorite player was traded (e.g. Peyton Manning fans in Indiana during his seasons with the Broncos), the team local to the place where they grew up before moving for a job to an industry hotbed, the team of the university that one of their adult children attends, etc.

        sports are much more fun to watch at a sport bar with a bunch of people around you cheering, then they are to watch at home by yourself.

        Some parents want to cheer with their minor children, even if they live in a 21-to-enter state.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TheSync ( 5291 )

      With ESPN now talking to HULU, we are moving closer to a break of the sports content lock that cable has held

      The only "content lock" is money. Cable and broadcast channels get guaranteed per-subscriber payments from MVPDs every month (often several dollars per sub), on top of better per ad rates than streaming built on huge audiences larger than any live streaming (tens of millions for broadcast football), which is the kind of money they need to pay for sky-high sports rights.

      As soon as streaming solutions

      • The only "content lock" is money.

        Well, it certainly does always come down to money of course. ESPN has been quite reluctant to move outside its cable world because of the overall lucrative Disney contracts with cable. They knew, as did the cable companies, that sports kept a lot of subscribers, so in essence that formed a content lock of ESPN sports tied to cable. Even ESPN3 required a cable TV account.

        But, now ESPN itself is not enough to keep so many cable subscribers paying those high cable bills. So ESPN has to start moving to IPTV,

    • Roku has been offering sports through its platform for a few years now.
      https://channelstore.roku.com/... [roku.com]
      I don't think avid TV people do too much serious research about cutting the cable cord unless they really have to. FYI, I've been cable-free (internet only) for 10+ years now, and have noticed the validity of arguments against cutting the cord rapidly diminishing. When I see commericals for Xfinity X1, I actually feel the same way about that as I do about the commericials for "free tv" that are really jus

  • Can? (Score:2)

    by hey! ( 33014 )

    Try "has" for anything but breaking news or sports.

    • Re:Can? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Moof123 ( 1292134 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @05:46PM (#52039779)

      News has been broken for a long time. I can't tune into any of 24 hour networks without wanting to throw something at the TV due to the utter stupidity being displayed by the teleprompter monkeys. Evening local news is filled with "Is your cat going to kill you? After the break..." I'd rather get my news online where I can choose to skip past the inane crap.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        Is the online news presented audiovisually so that you can unwind from tiring work at your day job, or do you have to expend attention reading it? My roommate watches local news, Inside Edition, and PBS NewsHour to unwind.

        • Bingo! When I get home, I just plop into my chair, turn on the tube, and yell at Mr. O'Reilly. I've been using my brain all day and I want to just relax.

  • My wife and I are moving soon. Between Netflix (streaming + discs), Hulu, and Amazon we feel pretty well covered. If anybody has any suggestions for streaming news they would be well appreciated.

    • Damn, I hit 'Submit' too fast. I meant to say "my wife and I are moving soon and cable TV isn't." We figure the move is the best time for a change like that.

      My apologies.

    • Well, news is very personal. Do you want local news? That's highly dependent on what the local news outlets offer, but some people have good luck with rabbit ears.

      I know you can stream the BBC online, if that's the sort of news you want.

      I personally like channels like Discovery, History, Science, NatGeo, Smithsonian, and so forth. I haven't seen anything at all on Netflix or anything like it that offers much of anything to me. Just a handful of things here and there - maybe. But I keep hoping.

      • How can you stream the BBC online? I've been looking for that for ages. They even yanked off Doctor Who off of all streaming services, with a hint that maybe they're going to have their own service. BBC News has not been streaming for a few years at least that I can tell. Really, the only thing I miss from satellite is BBC America.

        Discovery has gone stupid a few years back, not much to see there ("How It's Made" is on netflix). History channel is now the Nazi Space Aliens channel. National Geographic

        • For one, there is an Android app on my phone that lets me stream audio.

          If you just google "bbc news streaming", you can pick over a variety of stories to watch, some of which are very current. It isn't the same as just live streaming the channel - apparently the cable companies prevent them from selling that to people in the US/Canada.

          http://www.bbc.com/news/world-... [bbc.com]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Zarquon ( 1778 )

          Dr Who moved to Amazon for now, in the US at least. 1-8 are included with Prime, season 9 costs more money.

          -R C

    • most places you can go are covered by HD broadcast, which you can get with an antenna. The broadcast quality is far superior to most cable or satellite streams that I've seen. I use that plus Tablo for DVR to cover everything you might want.

      It's still cheaper than cable or satellite...

    • I haven't found any good live options yet, but the PBS NewsHour is freely available every night.

  • If they're so smart... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @05:30PM (#52039651) Homepage Journal

    If they know what I'm likely to click, why don't they show it to me, instead of aggressively doing the opposite?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They are trying to broaden your interests. They only have so many shows, eventually you will exhaust them, so it's important to suggest other stuff you might like too. FWIW I've found a few shows through Netflix that are worth watching.

  • until you hate netflix as much as you hate cable. it will happen and the schadenfreuden will be sweet.

    • I hope you're only kidding and you're really not that bitter of a person. Anyhow, where are a few reasons that may not happen:

      First, there are no local monopolies for streaming video services, so unlike cable, it's not a "take it or leave it" offering. There's also more than one streaming service, and they have to directly compete with each other, as well as with cable. In fact, I predict you'll actually see substantial price cuts in cable services as more and more people start ditching them altogether a

    • Since Netflix has bowed to the content conglomerates and started blocking people getting around geoblocks (100% legal where I live) I've terminated my membership.

      Wilst I've got the skill, I dont have the time, patience or willingness to spend the money on complex solutions involving running my own VPN server from an S3 container. Fuck that, I've gone back to Channel BT.

      Yes Netflix, you can tell the content owners that instead of paying for their content like I was happy to do before they started fucki
  • my mom has been a terrestrial cable TV subscriber since the mid 1960's and i shown her satellite when it first got popular and she was not impressed, i shown her Roku and all the free stuff it includes and google's chromecast, and she had no interest in it, she love her basic cable, she gets 60+ channels but only watches about 5 of them, and does not care to change, she is too stubborn and set in her ways to change,

  • For a long time for me, Netflix DID replace traditional TV.

    Even now it mostly does, but I have broken down and have a few things like an HBO Now subscription (now that HBO and others no longer require a tie in from your cable provider).

    Even if you loved sports, I cannot see how cable at this point is a better deal than something like the MLB subscription which through apps gives you way more than TV ever could. You'd have fewer sports to watch but get way more games and information. Personally I've been w

    • No local games from the MLB app, that's kind of a major problem, isn't it? Those are the games most people want to watch.

  • [Netflix can't replace] the experience of the movie theater.

    Oh yes, so many things I will miss about movie theaters...
    - Outrageous prices of concessions and tickets.
    - Going to the movie rather than it coming to me.
    - Inability to pause.
    - Scheduling parts of my day around when the movie I want to see is on.
    - Other people that never improve, and often detract from, the movie experience.

    Mark my words: Movie theaters are the next lunch Netflix will eat after cable TV stations and providers.

    • Maybe I should start a service that delivers $8 popcorn and $6 large cups of soda directly to people's homes, for those that really miss the "movie theater experience"!!!
      • To truly replicate the experience, you'd also need to tie it to a streaming service that doesn't allow pausing once the film has started, randomises the equaliser settings so that the audio sucks, and ensure that the delivery service wouldn't ring the doorbell until 10 minutes into the film.

    • [Netflix can't replace] the experience of the movie theater.

      Oh yes, so many things I will miss about movie theaters...
      - Outrageous prices of concessions and tickets.
      - Going to the movie rather than it coming to me.
      - Inability to pause.
      - Scheduling parts of my day around when the movie I want to see is on.
      - Other people that never improve, and often detract from, the movie experience.

      Mark my words: Movie theaters are the next lunch Netflix will eat after cable TV stations and providers.

      - 4k video
      - HUGE screen
      - Full Dolby Atmos surround sound
      - The movie as it was meant to be experienced

      Yes, there can be some drawbacks but, in my opinion, the positives outweigh them. But then again, I love movies. It seems to me that you enjoy them, but for you, watching a movie is not an experience, just something to do for fun. So watching a movie on a small screen (relatively) with low resolution works for you.

      The Showcase Cinemas movie theater near me renovated this past winter and now has reserved s

      • 4K makes a difference for some people, but it doesn't do much for me. When my local cinema went digital, I could see the pixelation, which I can't on a DVD at home. As to the screen size, it's not the size as much as the field of view that matters. A projector at home filling up the wall of the living room gets me the same amount of my field of view filled as a good seat in the cinema, and far more than a bad seat. Audio also seems to hit diminishing returns. Stereo was a big difference over mono. Dol
    • You forgot:
      -loud/annoying people
      -dirty/broken seats
      -smelly people
      -30 mins of commericals before the movie

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ADRA ( 37398 )

      Much like a broadway show or Theatre, Movies gives people an excuse to get out of their boring hum drum lives and sit through some audio/visual experience outside of their home's comfort zone. The problem is now that home threatres have gotten significantly better over the last 15 years and movie theatres have gotten significantly worse.

  • Netflix has some stuff but it's full of crap that takes some wading through and there's limited access to current movies.

    The Roku can use Netflix, but it can also use many other sources. The Roku is plenty good enough to replace cable TV.

  • Netflix can't replace TV yet because there is too much content it doesn't carry. However a media centre that can aggregate your different media sources can. Especially so if your chosen sport have streaming as well. My choices of MotoGP, Cricket and NRL Rugby all stream, all of them can be supported directly by KODI.

  • I thought that back when it was just three DVDs at one time; one movie and two series at any time kept me in plenty of TV watching.
  • I think it would really suck if all TV became pay TV, regardless of whether you have to pay for an internet connection to get it, or that plus paying some service like Netflix. Also, what about local news broadcasts? Local public access? OTA broadcast television and radio have always served these purposes as well as entertainment, or has everyone forgotten that? Anyway.. I dumped cable TV years ago and haven't regretted it once. I also dumped Netflix before that, because it just didn't offer enough to justi
  • These days I can hardly find anything I want to watch on streaming, and I can barely keep my DVD queue full.

    Hulu is a desert. I won't pay for Amazon Prime, at least not while I'm paying for Netflix. Comcast/Xfinity can't seem to make up its mind what I'm allowed to watch on my broadband-only service; I watched have of season five of Game of Thrones before they decided I wasn't really entitled to it. Yes, I am actually entitled to some things, just not very much. I almost bit when they had a Broadband+TV d

    • I wanted to use iPlayer but instead just waited until the next day for all the Snooker to make it onto YouTube.

      YouTube is / will be the ultimate winner here, not Netflix.

      Our kids figured this out years ago...

  • Traditional TV is a steaming pile of crap. I watch more YouTube content created by random people with a camcorder than 'traditional TV'. In fact I'm amazed that 'traditional TV' hasn't gone the way of the dinosaurs yet. I tried to get a subscription to the local TV channel that has a monopoly on showing Game of Thrones, they told me that in order to get that channel I'd have to buy a 'value package' of 10 channel that included sports channels, a celebrity channel, a lifestyle channels... basically I'd have

  • Pretty much everything my wife and I watch comes from three sources:

    Netflix, shomi (a canada only streaming service similar to Netflix) and the iTunes store. We subscribe to all of the current TV we like (8 or so shows I think) on iTunes. We download and watch them every week whenever we want. The rest comes from streaming services. I haven't done the math but I'm pretty sure that the total cost still comes out to less per month than cable TV. Even if it were more expensive I wouldn't care since the co

  • First of all, to get that out of the way, I am tired of incessant Netflix pedaling. Very narrow selection, uncomparable to the actual selection.

    This will happen:

    Everybody will pay a fee, much like we pay now to ISPs: it will be one lump fee per month for everything.

    ISP will track every click you make and how much time you spend on content (like it or not). It will automatically identify the content as well, whether you are streaming it from HBO, Netflix or free.entertainment.biz

    Thus, ISP will have a compreh

    • I'm not sure I actually disagree with your prediction. That said, this seems unlikely to me.

      The ISP tracking every click I make or how much time I spend on content sounds like they have control of my computer. That seems unlikely to me. People use VPNs for work where they literally aren't allowed to share information with a third party. People use VPNs and proxies to avoid being tracked. People buy computers with the express intent of putting a different OS on the computer than what it might come with, or p

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lgw ( 121541 )

      It is very similar to what is happening on TV right now, except that the measure of popularity of content is determined by rather silly and outdated Nielsen rating system.

      Well, for anyone with a TV connected to the internet, the new ratings system is a screenshot (well, a hash of one I'm sure) sent to the ratings company every so often, to determine directly what you're watching, even if it's a torrent. You do know that's what already happens, right?

      No shadiness, no copyright infringement, no privacy.

      We're sorry, the content you have selected is not available in your country.

  • Not as it currently is it can't.
    For one no live anything.
    For two I can't leave it on for noise. Three episodes and wham are you still watching this?

  • I no longer have regular TV because there isn't anything on it for me anyway, especially not at the time I want to see it.
    Sadly in .nl the Netflix catalogue is only 33% of the US catalogue, so I still get stuff to watch via "alternate" channels.

    I only one about one other VOD service available here, and it has absolutely nothing to offer (crappy Dutch productions).

  • So 76% of NETFLIX users like NETFLIX. Not surprising at all, nope. If it had been 76% of Cable users think Netflix can replace traditional TV, that would've been interesting.

  • but its not even close to having a meaningful catalog here in Austria, Europe.

  • I've replaced my broadcast AND movie going with DVDs in various ways-- library check-outs, rentals, Netflix, etc. Here's the thing-- I'm not interested in "Sports Coverage," News coverage is horribly biased towards useless sensationalism, equivalent to click-bait. There are way better sources of news that don't include the sensationalism (or the click-bait, which is my gauge of a serious site vs a crapvertizer). Movie theater experience is useless because all that is available is a narrow set of rec

  • Youtube already replaced television. You should have cut the cord a long time ago and joined the new paradigm. Netflix is not the best replacement since the content is stale and licensed outside of the few products Netflix funds which have niche appeal. Youtube content is constantly changing and being updated several times a second with new videos. The only problem faced is finding the content that appeals to you.

    For people that need traditional media there are always Crackle, PBS, HBO Now, Hulu, iTunes, Vu

  • Let me know when 20 million concurrent users can reliably stream a football game in HD 60 fps over the Internet.

    No doubt this will happen, but right now the reliable numbers I hear are about 1-2 million reliable concurrent streams.

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