A La Carte Or A La Cable? How Streaming Services Are Taking The Media Industry Back In Time

alt= class=wp-image-10549 data-lazy-srcset=https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-01-browsing.jpg 960w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-01-browsing-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-01-browsing-768x432.jpg 768w data-lazy-sizes=(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px data-lazy-src=/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-01-browsing.jpg /> Between 2014 and 2020, cable providers lost nearly 10 million subscribers-and certainly not because people picked up new hobbies or decided to make good on their move more New Year's resolutions.

No, Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs) lost a good chunk of those folks to the new kids on the block-Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) providers: Netflix, Hulu, and friends.

In this post, we'll take a deep dive into exactly why so many people are attracted to MVPD alternatives-and explore how the streaming wars are taking us right back to where we started.

alt= class=wp-image-10550 data-lazy-srcset=https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-02-remote-EUO.jpg 960w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-02-remote-EUO-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-02-remote-EUO-768x432.jpg 768w data-lazy-sizes=(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px data-lazy-src=/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-02-remote-EUO.jpg /> Cord-Cutters: An Origin Story The year is 2007.

We have no idea the housing bubble is about to burst. Barack Obama has announced his presidential candidacy, gas costs less than three bucks a gallon, and the first generation iPhone has just hit the U.S. market.

And with one widely criticized move, Netflix has changed the media and entertainment industry forever: In addition to their DVD-by-mail service, they would be streaming content straight to subscribers' PCs.

Today, it's hard to imagine just how bold that decision was. With Amazon and Walmart nipping at Netflix's DVD heels, naysayers had been predicting the media company's demise for years. Plus, the service's streaming resolution was capital-T terrible, and-believe it or not-the on-demand space was already relatively congested in 2007.

Of course, as we all know, Netflix's innovation paid off. Long-time cable junkies fed up with bait-and-switch pricing, terrible customer service, iron-clad contracts, and hundreds of meh channels, simply stopped complaining and cut the cord.

alt= class=wp-image-10551 data-lazy-srcset=https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-03-pliers.jpg 960w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-03-pliers-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-03-pliers-768x432.jpg 768w data-lazy-sizes=(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px data-lazy-src=/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-03-pliers.jpg /> How Netflix Launched An Anti-Cable Movement One of consumers' biggest beefs with cable TV is its bloat. That one channel we really, really want is, inevitably, buried inside a package with an unnecessarily enthusiastic name and a whole bunch of channels we don't want. But because we had few alternative entertainment sources, we put up with it.

Netflix gave us our first truly interesting alternative.

The service was inexpensive, and its catalog and quality improved at a good clip. As Netflix buddied up with more networks to provide more reruns of our favorite shows, binge-watching was born. More than ever, viewers were off the networks and on the internet.

But cable companies weren't too worried just yet. (No one really thought video would kill the radio star either.) On the contrary, media execs were thrilled by the binge. With entire seasons of reruns available for on-demand viewing, current seasons of shows became more in-demand. So while Netflix, and then Hulu, was gaining subscribers, networks still had plenty of viewers. Win-win.

alt= class=wp-image-10552 data-lazy-srcset=https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-04-popcorn.jpg 960w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-04-popcorn-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-04-popcorn-768x432.jpg 768w data-lazy-sizes=(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px data-lazy-src=/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/streaming-like-cable-04-popcorn.jpg /> Still, Netflix knew it was only a matter of time before networks spun up their own streaming services. So, in 2013, the service innovated again, entering the original content creation space with House of Cards.

Although on-demand and live TV competitor Hulu had been in the original content game a couple of years prior, Netflix flexed its muscles (and dollars) to produce more and better shows, faster. Then Amazon Prime Video entered the original content market. Add to that HBO Max (formerly HBO Now), Apple TV , YouTube Premium, Disney , Peacock, and more, and we've got ourselves a lot of alternatives.

In fact, while cord-cutters like to humble brag about how they don't watch TV, the truth is when they quit cable they just plugged in elsewhere.

And these days, elsewhere feels a lot like cable.

Five Ways Streaming Services Are Like Cable - But Somehow Even More Irritating While having a cable alternative was nice, having a boatload of them has proven the opposite. Here's how.

#1 Like cable, we have to subscribe to a specific network to see its content. I know that se

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