Netflix is ​​ruining the last good thing about cable

by Jonathan Klotz
| Published 13 seconds ago

It’s no surprise that the entertainment landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade as more people have “cut the cord” and given up paying for cable. One of the few reasons to still pay for services was to access live sports, which is the one segment that streaming hasn’t been able to crack, but now, major sports are available on streaming platforms, including Paramount+, Amazon, and even YouTube. Netflix has taken down cable’s last bastion, weekly live events, with Access WWE Raw On January 6, with a seamless viewing experience watched by more than 6 million people around the world, the end of cable finally arrived.

WWE has arrived on Netflix

For nearly 30 years, professional wrestling has been one of the highest-rated programs on cable, from WCW Monday Nitro to WWE Rawduring the infamous Monday Night War era of the late 1990s, the shows were attracting more than 13 million viewers, combined, each week. This is a small part of Netflix The subscriber base today, but in the cable world, made it the most successful show of the era. Now no TV show even comes close to those numbers WWE Raw It managed roughly 2.2 to 3 million in a good week, but even that was still good enough to make it one of the top three rated cable shows each week.

Netflix and TKO, the new parent company of WWE, reported that even on My neighbor service, WWE Raw It got a better number than it has in years on 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 had much appeal to studios, viewers, or even advertisers. Live events were the last thing to prop up the dying industry, and with that over, what were cable companies going to do because lowering rates and lowering fees, the obvious solution, would never happen?

Live events were all on cable

The Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight on Netflix earlier in 2024 was a disaster that gave cable companies hope that WWE’s move to streaming wouldn’t work out. Buffering issues made one of the worst boxing matches in history unbearable, but when WWE Raw It started with a level of pomp and circumstance that no other organization could rival, and there were no problems. I watched from start to finish and had no issues with my stream.

Not likely WWE Raw It will attract the same level of viewers over the next few weeks, as the big debut was expected to attract new fans, but we’ve started the road to WrestleMania, a date where the company gets hot. At the same time, the NFL playoffs are underway, and each week, multiple games will be available via streaming, either Paramount+, Amazon Prime, or YouTube television. That’s multiple live events each week that broke free from traditional TV, and over Thanksgiving, Netflix successfully streamed an NFL game, proving that it can do everything cable does, but it’s cheaper right now.

Why even keep the cable?

Major shows exclusive to cable are few and far between, with even the most successful shows either available on the streamer when they debut or coming soon after. Netflix’s ability to premiere movies and shows of any genre, including underwhelming atlas Starring Jennifer Lopez or the surprising success of Rebel Ridgeand get more viewers in one day than cable Shogun The gain in their lives is simply unparalleled. Until then, Shogun It is available on Holo With the addition of live TV, so if that’s an option, and now wrestling, the last fanbase stuck on cable, has made the jump, why sign up for cable at all?

It’s a question that more and more people will be asking themselves, especially with the arrival of AEW TopIf you have Netflix and even one additional streaming service, what does cable offer? You can enjoy countless replays Sarcasmincluding episodes not available on Paramount+, and can spend hours channel surfing to find something to watch or watch one of the countless streaming services available.

---