Watching Netflix instead of cable television
may save the average American subscriber more
than six days’ worth of watching commercials
every year!
That’s according to blogger Stephen Lovely
from CordCutting.com, which covers stories
about online streaming services and how people
can take the plunge and disconnect their cable
TV service with a minimum of pain and suffering.
Here’s how he did the math. First, he cited
a January note from Netflix to shareholders
that revealed the company now has more than
75 million subscribers globally. And at CES
2016, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said Netflix
delivers 125 million hours’ worth of content
to those subscribers each day. If you take
the number of hours of content and divide
by the number of subscribers, you end up with
1 and 2/3 hours of streaming per customer
per day. According to Nielsen, an average
hour of American cable television has 938
seconds of commercials. There are 1,563 seconds
of commercials in 1 and 2/3 hours of daily
viewing. Multiply that by 365 days in a year
and you get... 560,617 seconds, or about 159
hours. That’s more than 6 and a half days
total! Now, not all Netflix subscribers avoid
watching cable television. Some do both. And
that 1 and 2/3 hours is a very rough average.
If you watch a lot more Netflix than that
and don’t watch cable TV, you’re technically
saving yourself from seeing even more advertisements.
And of course, the numbers of ads served to
audiences in other countries vary. It’s
no secret that many consumers are tired of
ads. The popularity of ad-skipping features
on DVRs and ad-free streaming services proves
it. And networks are taking notice -- back
in April, NBC Universal representative Linda
Yaccarino said that in 2017, Saturday Night
Live will have 30% fewer ads. That breaks
down to removing two full commercial breaks
per episode. But even those types of measures
may not be enough to stop consumers from leaving
cable TV. According to the US Bureau of Labor
and Statistics, the price of cable packages
has risen significantly faster than inflation
rates. Cost and the quality of experience
are big issues for customers. More than a
million pay-TV customers ended their subscriptions
last year according to industry research group
SNL Kagan. And then there are the cord-nevers
-- people who have never subscribed to a pay-TV
service. That number is growing too, putting
a gentle squeeze on the gargantuan pay-TV
industry.
How many of you out there have either cut
the cord or never signed up in the first place?
We want to hear from you guys. And don’t
forget to check out new stories every day
over at now.howstuffworks.com.
