CBC News reports that Netflix has managed to sign up 10% of Canadians, but they're not dropping cable TV.
While some analysts had predicted the rise of Netflix would take a big bite out of regular TV services — a phenomenon nicknamed "cord-cutting" — the survey results suggested the impact on cable and satellite has been small so far.
Netflix subscribers watched only slightly less regular TV than average – 13 hours per week, compared with 15.8 hours for non-Netflix subscribers.
Netflix subscribers were also only slightly less likely to subscribe to regular satellite and cable services (83 per cent) than non-Netflix subscribers (88 per cent).
Dear Financial analysts of the world...
Netflix is not designed to replace cable or satellite.
Netflix supplements whatever entertainment services you already have.
Please stop acting surprised over it not sending millions to cut the cord.
Thank you.
Posted by: Kale Barton | March 21, 2012 at 01:35 PM
Agreed - NetFlix is a good supplement to something else, not a stand-alone product.
In the US, NetFlix plus broadcast television (for those that can get it) is a good alternative to cable.
In Canada far fewer people can get OTA. From what I've heard in the Digital Home forums, Canadian broadcast coverage is pretty spotty and weak. That said, if anything, Canadian viewers hate cable companies even more than US viewers.
Posted by: gir | March 21, 2012 at 05:51 PM
So, they signed up all the french?
Posted by: yuppie scum | March 22, 2012 at 03:03 PM
The reason a larger percentage of Canadians have not cut the cable is do to a lack of content. NetFlix also removes a lot of titles after a period of time. At times it seems that they remove more titles then they add. If they don't increase there content in Canada and stop removing titles. Then that 10% will quickly decline to 5% and before long Canadians will stop using NetFlix.
Posted by: Eric | March 25, 2012 at 08:31 PM