I'm sure a majority of our modern population is familiar with the platform Netflix, the wonderful world of hit shows, a wide-range of movies and the pure root of distraction among people of all ages. I know I speak on behalf of many of my readers when I say Netflix is ADDICTING. I can effortlessly spend copious amounts of hours on the platform and not even realize it.
According to "Variety," Netflix members cumulatively stream an average of 125 million hours a day - this is more than the average lifespan of a human being! Among this Netflix induced euphoria is a much larger epidemic: Netflix is taking over television at a very alarming rate.
Justin, why on Earth would you say such a thing?
Television is definitely still a thing.
Yes, this is true, but allow me to elaborate on this idea. In its earlier days, Netflix began as a service that allowed you to order and rent movies from the comfort of your home; this then transitioned to the online database we've all become familiar with today. This meant that, for one of the first times ever, people could (legally—thanks PutLocker) stream movies from the comfort of their home. Because of this convenience, Netflix became the demise of movie rental empires such as Blockbuster and more.
Netflix was then revolutionized, once again, in 2013 with the release of the first "Netflix Original" series, "House of Cards." A "Netflix Original" is content that is produced and/or distributed by Netflix exclusively on their platform; in other words, these "Netflix Originals" are not shown on television networks. Now, at first glance, this doesn't seem like much of a big deal; Netflix is producing their own content—so what? This would not be as alarming if these "Netflix Originals" were not successful. "House of Cards" alone won 29 different awards and was nominated for 198 awards in total. "House of Cards" took the world by storm, and this is only one show. Other widely recognized Netflix Originals include "Narcos," "Orange is the New Black," "13 Reasons Why," "Marvel's Daredevil," and "Stranger Things," each with millions of viewers.
In addition to this, Netflix is already home to many of the popular television shows that are not "Netflix Originals" such as: "Breaking Bad," "How to Get Away with Murder," "Prison Break," "The Office" and more. The best part about this, in comparison to television, is that Netflix releases these shows in seasons, not by episodes, meaning that it's subscribers can binge the entire show instead of watching one or two televised episodes; this ability to binge watch seems to appeal to most media watchers and viewership is only on the rise. According to "Recode," homes that have streaming capabilities spend about 12 percent of total TV time viewing streaming programming, and about half of that is watching Netflix.
Let's face it, Netflix, with the ability to choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it and how long you desire to watch it, is slowly becoming everything that televised programs could only hope to offer. Sooner or later, the world of cable programming will have nothing that the streaming empire, Netflix, cannot; the news is probably an exception to this, but many people read the news on their phones anyways. Speaking of mobile devices, you are also able to watch Netflix on your mobile device, AKA everywhere you go, granted there is access to the Internet.
Thanks to Netflix and Netflix Originals, people have almost instant access to a database that can not be provided by television. In addition to this, Netflix is rapidly releasing new, exciting shows and continuing already successful shows. Taking this into consideration, it should be no surprise that the Netflix fanbase continues to grow.
