Netflix Destroys The Last Good Thing About Cable
It’s not a surprise that the entertainment landscape has changed significantly over the last decade as more people have “cut the cord” and ditched paying for cable. One of the few reasons to keep paying for services was access to live sports, the one segment that streaming hadn’t been able 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 6, and with a seamless viewer experience watched by over 6 million people worldwide, the death of cable has finally arrived.
WWE Arrived On Netflix
For almost 30 years, pro wrestling has been one of the highest-rated programs on cable, from WCW Monday Nitro to WWE Raw, during the infamous Monday Night War era of the late 90’s, the shows would draw over 13 million viewers, combined, each week. That’s a small fraction of the Netflix subscriber base today, but in the cable universe, that made them the most successful shows of the era. Now no cable show pulls in anywhere close to those numbers, with even WWE Raw managing around 2.2-3 million on a good week, but even that was still good enough to make it one of the top three highest-rated cable shows each week.
Netflix and TKO, the new parent company of the WWE, have reported that even on the streaming service, WWE Raw pulled in a better number than it has in years on the USA Network: 4.9 million viewers. Once that number was announced and the success of the move to Netflix reached investors, it became clear that cable no longer has anything to entice studios, viewers, or even advertisers. Live events were the last thing propping up the dying industry, and with that gone, what will the cable companies do since cutting rates and charging less, the obvious solution, will never happen?
Live Events Were All Cable Had
The Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight on Netflix earlier in 2024 was a disaster that gave hope to the cable companies that the WWE’s move to streaming wouldn’t work out. Buffering issues made one of the worst boxing matches in history insufferable, yet when WWE Raw kicked off with a level of pomp and circumstance no other organization can match, there were no issues. I watched from beginning to end and never had a single issue with my stream.
It’s unlikely that WWE Raw will pull the same level of viewers over the next few weeks, since the big debut was expected to attract new fans, but we are starting the road to WrestleMania, which is historically when the company gets hot. At the same time, the NFL playoffs are kicking off, and each week, multiple games will be available on streaming, either Paramount+, Amazon Prime, or YouTube TV. That’s multiple live events every week that have broken free of traditional television, and over Thanksgiving, Netflix successfully aired an NFL Game, proving it can do everything cable does, but for now, it’s cheaper.
Why Even Keep Cable?
Major shows that are exclusive to cable are few and far between, with even the most successful shows either available on a streamer when they debut or coming to one soon after. Netflix’ ‘s ability to premiere movies and shows of any genre, including the disappointing Atlas starring Jennifer Lopez or the surprise success of Rebel Ridge, and have more viewers in one day than cable hits like Shogun earn in their lifetime is simply unmatched. Even then, Shogun was available on Hulu with the live TV addition, so if that’s an option, and now wrestling, the last fandom stuck on cable, has made the leap, why subscribe to cable at all?
It’s a question that more and more people will be asking themselves, especially with AEW coming to Max, if you have Netflix and even one additional streaming service, what does cable offer? You can enjoy countless reruns of Ridiculousness, including episodes not on Paramount+, and can spend hours surfing through channels to find something to watch or watch one of the countless streaming services available.
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