Research on Internet and Streaming services (is it the future of television?)

With the website Youtube hitting the public from February 2005 people had started uploading content that was grabbing the attention of people mainly because it was free and they could access it however and whenever they wanted to. Now today the internet has become a global business to all, from online graphic design businesses to videos being constantly created by millions of people.

Websites such as Youtube gave way to new possibilities to not only in terms of targeting audience but also how to get better connected with them so you know what their audience is looking for.

Right now the internet is used practically 24/7, humanity depend on the internet for work as well as entertainment which brings us to the main website and service in question, Netflix, is it really the future of television?

Since originally my show "Destination For Despicable Delinquents" was intended to reach audiences by a new medium such as the internet rather than television, I thought this would be a good time to do more research into not just Netflix but other internet media services and see how far the rabbet hole goes.


As the company profile states:

"Netflix is the world’s leading Internet television network with over 83 million members in over 190 countries enjoying more than 125 million hours of TV shows and movies per day, including original series, documentaries and feature films. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on nearly any Internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments." Netflix Overview (2016) [Online] At: https://ir.netflix.com (Accessed on 17/10/2016).

Putting this in mind, 190 countries have been targeted with Netflix alone and recorded within human history there are (if you are including Taiwan) 196 countries on our planet. Which means that over 96% of our entire planet has Netflix with these 83 members attached to it. So doing a quick search on a an estimated amount of UK Netflix members I came to this, there are since 2015 4.94 million UK Netflix members. So if I round that up to 5 million UK people and times the amount that a standard membership costs, which in the UK so far seems to be £7.49 and multiply the by 5 million we get....  £37,450,000, so every month UK households would be paying almost up £37.5 million pounds or $42,608,650.00 every month for the company.

Fig 1. Statista, Number of Netflix paying streaming subscribers in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2012 to 2015 and forecast to 2020 (in millions) (2016).

So is it really a surprise that entertainment website services such as Netflix is doing so well not only in variety of media to view but also to film and create their own original content, because from the figures that are showing it shows that they definitely got the money and profit to do it.  So that was just a quick insight into how much a website on the internet can do, and it truly shows how powerful the internet can be when you know how to use it to your advantage.

As for television, the medium is still holding strong but the question is for how long, for me  in particular I tend to use the internet for entertainment more ever since Youtube started appearing in 2005, now in 2016 I use the internet everyday, not just to work and for research but to rely on it for entertainment as well. There are personalities and other people on Youtube that create content that I enjoy immensely and I watch their videos on my break every single day.

So to sum up, is the internet the future of television? By the way I see it, it does seem to be that way although there some aspects of television that people choose to put on, like BBC News or for me it would be a latest episode of one of my favourite shows Game of Thrones. So right now television is still holding and is still highly relevant in today society, but with the internet there is one big difference between that and television. Television is about seeing what's on or what you have recorded, but all the same it's only whats on the TV, and sometimes there is nothing that television  can provide you that you want to watch. As for the internet now, entertainment can be accessed easily and you can choose what you want to watch and unlike television you can watch it whenever you want to. So as the human race seem to do today is when there is something new and exciting they will move on to the next best thing and if television is not careful that one thing might just be the internet.


Image List:
Fig 1. Statista, Number of Netflix paying streaming subscribers in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2012 to 2015 and forecast to 2020 (in millions) (2016) [Online] At: https://www.statista.com/statistics/324092/number-of-netflix-subscribers-uk/ (Accessed on 17/10/2016).

Bibliography:

inforplease.com, How Many Countries? (2016) [Online] At: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0932875.html (Accessed on 17/10/2016).

Netflix: Overview (2016) [Online] At: https://ir.netflix.com (Accessed on 17/10/2016).