- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 13,000
Netflix has hit a major milestone by surpassing cable in total subscribers: US cable companies have 48.61 million subscribers, while Netflix has just hit 50.85 million. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, since the streaming service has seen rapid increases to its subscriber base. While things are beginning to look grim for cable, some say it’s actually not as bad it looks, being that major providers only lost 4 million subscribers since Q1 2012.
According to Leichtman Research Group, the country’s largest cable TV providers, representing around 95% of the cable market, had 48.6 million subscribers at the end of March, while Netflix had 50.9 million customers on its home turf. While cable only represents around 50 percent of the U.S. pay-TV market as a whole, it is by far the most popular way of getting pay-TV in the country. For Netflix to surpass cable is a big step in becoming the number one source of home entertainment. Interestingly, Netflix reached that goal mainly by growing its own subscriber base rather than by having people “cut the cord”. Major cable providers only lost 4 million subscribers since Q1 2012 – Netflix added 27 million.
According to Leichtman Research Group, the country’s largest cable TV providers, representing around 95% of the cable market, had 48.6 million subscribers at the end of March, while Netflix had 50.9 million customers on its home turf. While cable only represents around 50 percent of the U.S. pay-TV market as a whole, it is by far the most popular way of getting pay-TV in the country. For Netflix to surpass cable is a big step in becoming the number one source of home entertainment. Interestingly, Netflix reached that goal mainly by growing its own subscriber base rather than by having people “cut the cord”. Major cable providers only lost 4 million subscribers since Q1 2012 – Netflix added 27 million.