Netflix is ​​ruining the last good thing about cable

According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published 13 seconds ago

Unsurprisingly, the entertainment industry has changed significantly over the past decade as more people have “cut the cord” and stopped paying for cable. One of the few reasons to continue paying for the services was access to live sports, a segment that streaming failed to crack, but now major sports are available on streaming platforms including Paramount+, Amazon and even YouTube. Netflix took down the last bastion of cable, weekly live events, with the arrival of WWE Raw On January 6th, the death of cable finally came, thanks to a seamless viewing experience watched by more than 6 million people worldwide.

WWE has arrived on Netflix

For nearly 30 years, professional wrestling has been one of the highest-rated programs on cable, from WCW Monday Nitro on WWE RawDuring the infamous Monday Night War era of the late 1990s, the shows would pull in more than 13 million combined viewers each week. That’s a small fraction of it Netflix subscriber base today, but in the cable world, it made them the most successful shows of the time. Now, no cable show comes close to those numbers, with even numbers WWE Raw manages around 2.2-3 million on a good week, but even that was still good enough to be one of the top three cable shows each week.

Netflix and TKO, WWE’s new parent company, said that even on streaming service, WWE Raw drew a better number than in years on the USA Network: 4.9 million viewers. Once that number was announced and the success of the move to Netflix trickled down to investors, it became clear that cable no longer had anything to entice studios, viewers, or even advertisers. Live streaming was the last thing to prop up a dying industry, and when that’s gone, what will the cable companies do because rate cuts and lower fees, the obvious solution, will never happen?

The live events were all Cable Had

The Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Netflix in early 2024 was a disaster that gave cable companies hope that WWE’s move to streaming wouldn’t work. Buffering issues made one of the worst boxing matches in history unbearable, but when WWE Raw launched with a level of pomp and circumstance unmatched by any other organization, there were no problems. I watched from start to finish and never had a single problem with my stream.

That is unlikely WWE Raw will draw the same level of viewership over the next few weeks as the big debut was expected to bring in new fans, but we’re starting the road to WrestleMania, which is historically when the company gets fired up. At the same time, the NFL playoffs will start and several games will be available for streaming each week, either Paramount+, Amazon Prime or YouTube TV. That’s a few live events each week that broke away from traditional TV, and over Thanksgiving, Netflix successfully aired an NFL game, proving it can do everything cable can do, but for now, it’s cheaper.

Why even Keep Cable?

Major shows that are exclusive to cable are few and far between, and even the most successful shows are either available on the streamer when they debut or arrive soon after. Netflix’s ability to premiere movies and shows of any genre, including disappointments Atlas starring Jennifer Lopez or a surprise hit Rebel Crestand have more viewers in one day than cable hit shows Shogun earning for their life is simply unmatched. even then Shogun was available on Hulu with the addition of live television, so if that’s an option, and now wrestling, the last fandom glued to cable, has made the jump, why even subscribe to cable?

It’s a question that more and more people will be asking themselves, especially with the arrival of AEW Maxif you have Netflix and even one other streaming service, what does cable offer? You can enjoy countless replays Ridiculousnessincluding episodes that aren’t on Paramount+, and you can spend hours scrolling through channels to find something to watch, or check out one of the countless streaming services available.