Last year, half of Americans aged 22 to 45 watched zero hours of cable TV. And almost 35 million households have quit cable in the past decade.
All these people are moving to streaming services like Netflix (NFLX). Today, more than half of American households subscribe to a streaming service.
The media calls this “cord cutting.”
This trend is far more disruptive than most people understand. The downfall of cable is releasing billions in stock market wealth.
Combined, America’s five biggest cable companies are worth over $750 billion. And most investors assume Netflix will claim the bulk of profits that cable leaves behind.
So far, they’ve been right. Have you seen Netflix’s stock price? Holy cow. It has rocketed 8,300% since 2009, leaving even Amazon in the dust:
But don’t let its past success fool you.
Because Netflix is not the future of TV. Let me say that one more time… Netflix is not the future of TV.
The Only Thing That Matters
Netflix changed how we watch TV, but it didn’t really change what we watch…
Netflix has achieved its incredible growth by taking distribution away from cable companies. Instead of watching The Office on cable, people now watch The Office on Netflix.
This edge isn’t sustainable.
In a world where you can watch practically anything whenever you want, dominance in distribution is very fragile.
Because the internet has opened up a whole world of choice, featuring great exclusive content is now far more important than anything else.
For example, about 20 million people tuned in to watch the first episode of the latest season of hit show Game of Thrones.
It was one of the most-watched non-sporting events in TV history.
Netflix management knows content is king. The company spent $12 billion developing original shows last year. It released 88% more original programming in 2018 than it did the previous year.
And spending on original shows and movies is expected to hit $15 billion this year.
It now invests more in content than any other American TV network.
To fund its new shows, Netflix is borrowing huge sums of debt. It currently owes creditors $10.4 billion, which is 59% more than it owed this time last year.
The problem is that no matter how much Netflix spends, it has no chance to catch up with its biggest rival…
Disney Enters the Race
The Walt Disney Company (DIS) is one of America’s most iconic companies. (...)
More than a third of Disney’s revenue comes from its cable business. As you may know, Disney owns leading sports network ESPN and ABC News.
It makes money delivering this content to millions of Americans through cable providers like AT&T. As you can imagine, cord cutting has hit this business hard.
Disney’s cable business has stagnated over the past seven years. But in about 175 days, Disney is set to launch its own streaming service called Disney+.
It’s going to charge $6.99/month—around $6 cheaper than Netflix.
And it’s pulling all its content off of Netflix.
This is a big deal.
by Stephen McBride, Forbes | Read more:
Image: RiskHedge
All these people are moving to streaming services like Netflix (NFLX). Today, more than half of American households subscribe to a streaming service.
The media calls this “cord cutting.”
This trend is far more disruptive than most people understand. The downfall of cable is releasing billions in stock market wealth.
Combined, America’s five biggest cable companies are worth over $750 billion. And most investors assume Netflix will claim the bulk of profits that cable leaves behind.So far, they’ve been right. Have you seen Netflix’s stock price? Holy cow. It has rocketed 8,300% since 2009, leaving even Amazon in the dust:
But don’t let its past success fool you.
Because Netflix is not the future of TV. Let me say that one more time… Netflix is not the future of TV.
The Only Thing That Matters
Netflix changed how we watch TV, but it didn’t really change what we watch…
Netflix has achieved its incredible growth by taking distribution away from cable companies. Instead of watching The Office on cable, people now watch The Office on Netflix.
This edge isn’t sustainable.
In a world where you can watch practically anything whenever you want, dominance in distribution is very fragile.
Because the internet has opened up a whole world of choice, featuring great exclusive content is now far more important than anything else.
For example, about 20 million people tuned in to watch the first episode of the latest season of hit show Game of Thrones.
It was one of the most-watched non-sporting events in TV history.
Netflix management knows content is king. The company spent $12 billion developing original shows last year. It released 88% more original programming in 2018 than it did the previous year.
And spending on original shows and movies is expected to hit $15 billion this year.
It now invests more in content than any other American TV network.
To fund its new shows, Netflix is borrowing huge sums of debt. It currently owes creditors $10.4 billion, which is 59% more than it owed this time last year.
The problem is that no matter how much Netflix spends, it has no chance to catch up with its biggest rival…
Disney Enters the Race
The Walt Disney Company (DIS) is one of America’s most iconic companies. (...)
More than a third of Disney’s revenue comes from its cable business. As you may know, Disney owns leading sports network ESPN and ABC News.
It makes money delivering this content to millions of Americans through cable providers like AT&T. As you can imagine, cord cutting has hit this business hard.
Disney’s cable business has stagnated over the past seven years. But in about 175 days, Disney is set to launch its own streaming service called Disney+.
It’s going to charge $6.99/month—around $6 cheaper than Netflix.
And it’s pulling all its content off of Netflix.
This is a big deal.
by Stephen McBride, Forbes | Read more:
Image: RiskHedge
