- Netflix CEO says “end to traditional form of watching television” is close.
- Experts say live channels would not lose their place that easily.
- His prediction comes after Netflix loses 970,000 subscribers in second quarter of year alone.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings claimed recently that television would die within 10 years.
He said that since everyone was investing in streaming platforms now, it will “put an end to the traditional form of watching television”.
His prediction came after Netflix lost nearly 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter of the year alone. This is even more than it lost in the first three months of 2022.
MailOnline reached out to experts and asked them what they thought of Hasting’s comments.
Experts said that even though streaming was pressuring TV, live channels would not lose their place that easily.
“The future of TV is streaming,” Mike Proulx, VP and research director at Forrester told MailOnline.
He said that Hasting’s claim was aggressive.
“… Traditional TV will have a niche future for stuff like local news and some shows that work better in a live format,” remarked Ben Barringer, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot.
Daily Mail pointed out that a huge advantage of linear TV channels is that many are free to air as they are funded by advertisements.
Netflix, on the other hand, charges much more monthly. Other streamers like Amazon Prime and Disney+ charge even more.
Hastings also shared earlier that his platform would begin ads as early as 2023 to create cheaper ways for customers to access Netflix.
YouTube, for example, is free simply because it compels viewers to watch ads all the time.
