4 ms·
The cable companies saw netflix as Blockbuster's competitor, not their own...and were fairly correct in that belief until netflix changed their game to streamin
by Unseelie 15y ago
The cable companies saw netflix as Blockbuster's competitor, not their own...and were fairly correct in that belief until netflix changed their game to streaming, and streaming of tvshows and fairly new movies..and even so, the streaming of movie titles was never something the cable companies were hugely good at until recently: Movie studies saw their profits as sourced from dvd and vhs mass market sales, and box office ticket sales, not distribution to tv.
So while the cable companies haven't responded well to netflix, I think its important to remember that only recently has netflix emerged as a competitor to the cable companies...and these industries had been respecting one another's monopolies until netflix changed the game.
- ShabbyDoo 15y agoIt seems reasonable to think that the cable companies at first saw Netflix at a threat only to Blockbuster, etc. Too bad for them that they did not take a broader view of their competition. When a person says, "I want to be entertained by narrative" (not that they would really say such a thing explicitly), cable, Netflix, movie theaters, live theater performances, novels, etc. all compete with each other for the person's attention and dollar. Cable had the advantage that it was always there and required little effort to consume on a per-unit basis (meaning, the effort of turning on the TV). However, it had the disadvantage of lacking variety -- much like the airport bookstore compared to a "real" bookstore (purposefully ignoring Amazon to keep the historical perspective intact). It was this unique position of availability which allowed Cable to survive alongside Blockbuster, and everything else I listed above. Netflix tipped this balance.