By Ryan Deal ‘16

The future of how people watch television as we know it is quickly approaching an impasse. Broadcast television and its original programming has been a mainstay in the common American household for decades, but an opponent is coming which could rattle programming for the future.

Netflix, a revolutionary website which streams around 2,000 different TV series, along with nearly 10,000 movies, has taken the television-watching world by storm since its streaming service’s emergence in 2011.

The number of Netflix subscribers has grown considerably in the past three years. Audiences used to have to wait every week for their new favorite show to come on. Now, with a simple click of the mouse or tap of an iPad, an entire series can be watched in a matter of days. This constant watching of a show in a short period of time is commonly called “binge-watching.” The number of binge-watchers is expanding at a rapid rate and Netflix is the primary source of it. The Instant Queue on Netflix is home to a vast array of shows. The most attractive part for viewers, however, is the viewing experience. Viewers are attracted to the lack of commercials and the short length of time it takes to watch the next episode.

“Part of what makes Netflix so enjoyable is the short times between episodes,” said senior Sara Zarny.

This feature results in impressive spurts of binge-watching in a short period of time. “I have seen an entire season of ‘24’ in just over a day,” said sophomore Tyler Bernstein.

Why should network TV be afraid of this binge-watching trend? Well, for starters, Netflix costs only $8 a month, a reasonably low price considering the popularity of the product. Secondly, Netflix has been skyrocketing in value over the past year. Stock share prices have grown more than 300 percent from the beginning to the end of last year, permitting the company to rapidly expand. Netflix has successfully made a splash as a content provider with original programming like “Arrested Development”, “House of Cards”, and “Orange is the New Black”, all of which drew critical acclaim.  Netflix has several new original shows in the making as well, including one commercializing on the extremely popular Marvel superheroes.

In a February 3 New Yorker article entitled “Outside the Box: Netflix and the Future of Television,” Marc Andreessen, co-inventor of Mosaic, the first commercial internet browser, claims that “TV in 10 years is going to be one hundred percent streamed.” This is a scary thought for TV executives everywhere who realize traditional TV and cable must break tradition and change quickly to continue to cater to what the audience craves.

“Cable TV should play two episodes in a row or just have the show air more than once a week more often,” said sophomore Kendall Kahn. Ideas like these have been bounced around by networks, but ultimately the revenue from advertisements outweigh the revenue coming in from binge-watchers. But as the number of avid binge-watchers of streamed shows grow, TV may alter its schedule to suit the needs of its audience.

Cable networks can allow Netflix to stream their shows so that audiences can be created for these shows. For example, the fifth season of “Breaking Bad,” the hit AMC drama with a massive following, drew more than double the audience than the previous season did. While “Breaking Bad” can symbolize the positives of network and cable cooperation with Netflix, these companies must keep a keen eye on the doings of this and the numerous other internet streaming services.

This era of television shows is often referred to by experts as the “Golden Age”. With such intriguing and original options for viewers to choose, it is becoming the norm to feast on them one after another at their convienience. Netflix is catering to these people, and that is the main reason why it is thriving. It will be interesting to see what cable TV will do to fire back, but regardless, the viewer is bound to be happy.