Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ comparison of cable TV to horse travel back in 2014 suddenly feels much more accurate, and we have to wonder now if his prediction that the age of broadcast TV will be over by 2030 will come to pass.
Netflix is notoriously stingy with sharing its numbers when it comes to ratings and viewership, so we’ve never been able to definitively compare how many people are watching Netflix series compared to how many people are sticking with cable series.
Of course, cord-cutting has been growing in popularity as consumers have discovered convenient TV options that don’t require a cable package, and Netflix is constantly debuting new originals, but the numbers for the first quarter of 2017 are still rather staggering.