Netflix has had a solid hold on people’s entertainment-based interests for a while now, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop anytime soon. According to a recent survey, it appears that a slew of Netflix users are feeling comfortable getting rid of their cable plans, with the potential for even more cord-cutters coming in the next year. The times, they are for binging.
According to the site CutCableToday – whose results were conducted in a manner independent from the website itself, to avoid subjectivity – over 800 Netflix subscribers were polled gauging their happiness with the service as well as how they handled pay TV, and the results were almost not even surprising, given the trend of cord-cutting and Internet reliance in recent years. Of those surveyed, exactly a third no longer had pay TV, and 9% of the rest were likely to end those services in the next year, with 16% answering that they were unsure if they’d go that route or not. Many people over the years have used Netflix merely as a sidekick to satellite and cable, but it looks like the tides will continue to shift in the future to push the streaming giant to the top.
Part of that shift comes with people having solid customer experiences with Netflix. Personally, I haven’t had a single problem with the company in all my years of subscribing to it, and 92% of those surveyed also answered that they were satisfied with it, with only 1% saying they were unsatisfied. (7% were neutral.) 93% answered that they were likely to keep it over the next year. Those numbers are pretty staggering, considering I’m sure less than 92% of people would be unhappy with “breathing air” if they were asked, and we've all heard horror stories about cable and satellite customer service.
For people that are sticking with their cable options, it’s not just an issue of loyalty. Many are tied into their companies through bundles that put internet and TV payments together, with both being much more expensive when ordered separately. Just over 80% of those polled got their Internet through a bundle package, and it’s hard to tell just how many of those subscribers would leave traditional methods behind for streaming-only deals. (It was also shown that 47% of people were also subscribed to Amazon Instant Video, with 30% signed on for HBO Now, and 27% with Hulu.)
It’s already assumed that Netflix is going to beat out major networks in popularity and audience ratings in the next year, and their ever-growing slate of original series is undoubtedly going to keep appealing to a broad range of subscribers. It’s now up to the networks themselves to figure out how to attract more live viewers, whether it’s through standalone streaming services or other means.
