Netflix CEO Predicts Broadcast TV's Death by 2030

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

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Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix doesn’t mince his words when referring to broadcast TV. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hastings gave broadcast TV just 16 years to live before streaming media becomes the mainstream.

"It's kind of like the horse, you know, the horse was good until we had the car," Hastings said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030.
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It's a fair estimate. May come sooner. Especially since more and more networks are beginning to offer streaming. Usually you have to authenticate with your cable/satellite provider to gain access. But I assume that once their contracts end, the networks may start allowing for a stream-only-direct subscriber method. I'd assume current contracts prevent them from competing with providers.

Advertisers probably like it more as it eliminates the DVR. Less commercials but they're forced, so you're more likely to capture the audience. You can also serve ads based on the watchers data-profile (their likes), something traditional TV can't do. It's a targeted approach.
 
Has the number of Netflix subscribers even surpassed the number of people who still use antenna's to receive broadcast TV?

Households that use over the air broadcasts only is still almost 20%
People that only watch over the internet is 4%

There are way too many people that don't want to spend the money on cable or high speed internet, or don't want to bother with the complexity, and are fine with the limited number of broadcast TV channels. With the high-def broadcasts, they are getting just as good of pictures as most cable and satellite subscribers.

I know several people who only watch over the air TV and just buy or rent DVD's for movies. They would never consider paying for TV. If broadcast TV was shut down they would likely just stop watching TV.
 
Don't have cable. While netflix/redbox makes up for some of what I miss I would be sad if they got rid of broadcast TV. My 35$ OTR antennae pulls in 30+ channels, many in HD fo free. I'm sure netflix would love it if they got rid of broadcast TV. I imagine stations like TBS SyFi and the like will eventually be on the net.
 
Spidey329 said:
It's a fair estimate. May come sooner. Especially since more and more networks are beginning to offer streaming. Usually you have to authenticate with your cable/satellite provider to gain access. But I assume that once their contracts end, the networks may start allowing for a stream-only-direct subscriber method. I'd assume current contracts prevent them from competing with providers.

Advertisers probably like it more as it eliminates the DVR. Less commercials but they're forced, so you're more likely to capture the audience. You can also serve ads based on the watchers data-profile (their likes), something traditional TV can't do. It's a targeted approach.
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Disagree.
Steaming is competition for Satellite and Cable, not for people watching for free over the air TV.

Allowing people to stream specific channels directly eliminates the need for expensive cable packages.
If you can get a decent number of over the air channels and then supplement it with streaming a few premium channels, why would you need satellite or cable any more?
 
nutzo said:
Disagree.
Steaming is competition for Satellite and Cable, not for people watching for free over the air TV.

Allowing people to stream specific channels directly eliminates the need for expensive cable packages.
If you can get a decent number of over the air channels and then supplement it with streaming a few premium channels, why would you need satellite or cable any more?
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The 20% of over the air has very little to do with this discussion other then it will be harmed by the take over of streaming as a mainstream method of getting media.

Don't forget the other 80% pays the local station affiliates for the right to provide local channels. If steaming goes mainstream, ESPECIALLY if the source of the streaming is individual content creators, that income will disappear too... The only thing left of OTA might be national versions of of the 4 main stations with a few local affiliates in large markets like New York/LA etc.

Honestly individual streaming access is BAD for the customer. It will cost more being nickeled and dimed paying overhead for 20 different infrastructures etc. The best solution would multiple netflix like companies each competing with each other and forcing the content creators to lower prices during that competition.
 
I'll be amazed if broadcast TV is still around in 2020. Everyone from HBO to pro sports leagues are developing their own streaming services, within just a few years there really will be no point in paying for 120 junk channels that nobody ever watches.
 
JeffDC said:
I'll be amazed if broadcast TV is still around in 2020. Everyone from HBO to pro sports leagues are developing their own streaming services, within just a few years there really will be no point in paying for 120 junk channels that nobody ever watches.
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Yeah, good luck with that.
 
The expansion of proper high speed internet has slowed to a crawl. Cable companies will control when it happens and that's the end of it.

He's dreaming, it's nice to dream, but he's just dreaming.

I think he's full of his own imaginary importance.

A serious effort by cable companies could end Netflix tomorrow, they can lobby their way around the repercussions afterwards. Right now they just want to squeeze Netflix for money since they're being typically short-sighted, eventually they will want to pull the plug on the service altogether.
 
What an idiotic statement!

The majority of the country does not have access internet speeds needed for HD streaming; yet you can put up a metal stick and connect it to you HDTV and pick up off the air HD programming.
FREE media for consumption. Even thought it is less than premium content, there is something for everyone. Actually I enjoy the "MeTV" channel we have locally that is all retro it's programming is 80s and older.
 
I guess I disagree, I actually think there will be a resurgence in a new type of broadcast TV using multicast. The reason is because the bandwidth devoted to sending massive 4K signals to each and every person is getting crazy and I think that it would be very possible to get large amounts of people to watch the same thing at the same time if you offered them a good enough deal. So imagine a future where HBO has free or cheap ad supported multicast service where you can tap into a "live" stream and watch what is currently on. But then there is a premium tier where you can watch anything at any time like current Netflix or youtube. And there will probably be some mix where you can tap into multicast streams as much as you want but your ability to pick what you watch and when is limited to X hours per month or so many shows or something.

Broadcast TV was always there to solve a problem, a bandwidth problem and it can remain as such.
 
When he said "broadcast TV", I doubt he meant OTA. By broadcast, he meant "Push TV" model which primarily includes cable vs. the on demand model offered by Streaming

broadcasting in his context means you put it out there and viewers can take it or leave it.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
What an idiotic statement!

The majority of the country does not have access internet speeds needed for HD streaming; yet you can put up a metal stick and connect it to you HDTV and pick up off the air HD programming.
FREE media for consumption. Even thought it is less than premium content, there is something for everyone. Actually I enjoy the "MeTV" channel we have locally that is all retro it's programming is 80s and older.
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Yet they can stream HDTV in whatever they stream it in when they call it TV. I can even summon up an "On Demand" HD program through my cable box. huh...
 
JeffDC said:
I'll be amazed if broadcast TV is still around in 2020. Everyone from HBO to pro sports leagues are developing their own streaming services, within just a few years there really will be no point in paying for 120 junk channels that nobody ever watches.
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You are confusing Broadcast with Cable/Satellite.

People don't pay for Broadcast (over the air) TV channels, and you'll probable find that people watching over the air TV are more likely not to have internet access when compared to people paying for Cable/Satellite.
 
jpm100 said:
When he said "broadcast TV", I doubt he meant OTA. By broadcast, he meant "Push TV" model which primarily includes cable vs. the on demand model offered by Streaming

broadcasting in his context means you put it out there and viewers can take it or leave it.
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This.

Although once the broadcasting companies push content over Cable/Satellite stop being profitable with that model the OTA broadcasting controlled by those same companies will begin to go away as the companies will no longer be able to afford to keep them operating without the income of Cable/Sat subscribers paying for the shows that OTA is broadcasting.

What might happen is those companies will soon begin to offer their own streaming service, but still push the OTA stuff for free to people who wish to use it.

We're already seeing this with a lot of them now. HBO offering a pay service. NBC, CBS, ESPN and others are already offering a lot of shows on the Internet for free and/or included with Cable/Sat subscriptions.
 
as someone who only watches TV over the internet, I am all for it happening sooner than later.
 
Racist!
Only black people are poor and can't afford anything other than free TV. So will say the anti Voter ID crowd. ;)
 
When your govt starts to regulate the internet you'll just love internet TV. :rolleyes:
Free OTA is much preferred. Let's keep the options for both crowds.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
What an idiotic statement!

The majority of the country does not have access internet speeds needed for HD streaming; yet you can put up a metal stick and connect it to you HDTV and pick up off the air HD programming.
FREE media for consumption. Even thought it is less than premium content, there is something for everyone. Actually I enjoy the "MeTV" channel we have locally that is all retro it's programming is 80s and older.
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I love my OTA antenna! MeTV is pretty good. Plus lots of PBS and all the major networks, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CW, etc.

Between that and Netflix I'm generally set, and only pay 9 bucks a month for virtually unlimited content. When I want a certain movie I'll either just to go the theater or get a Redbox movie.
 
This is the same site I read articles about how companies are taking tax dollars and NOT rolling out infrastructure?

It would be possible except we'll be so far behind the rest of the world by then that the President of the U.S.A. (sponsored by Verizon) won't make enough to afford a premium data plan needed to stream all that programming.
 
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