Have you ever caught yourself binge watching the new season of Breaking Bad or House of Cards on Netflix? I know I have. Many people enjoy watching shows and movies on Netflix for hours on end. Binge watching shows on Netflix has become a new trend, and Netflix is reaping the benefits. On the other hand, Cable television is another popular form of video entertainment. Netflix and Cable television have a lot of similarities since they are both popular forms of video entertainment, but they also have a lot of differences. These differences separate them apart from each other. The biggest difference for most people is the price. Netflix cost significantly less than a cable subscription. Many people use a friend's account anyway, eliminating any cost. A second difference between Netflix and cable television is that Netflix has no commercials. No one likes watching boring commercials between intense moments in a show. Netflix has adapted to new technology to offer online streaming. This separates itself from cable, who hasn't changed much in many years. The shows that are offered on Netflix are of high quality. Many shows that are popular on cable television are offered on Netflix. However many shows premiere first on cable television. Netflix is very user friendly and easy to use, while cable television can be hard to find a show. The benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Netflix has surpassed cable television as the primary source of video entertainment. Why has Netflix overtaken Cable television as the primary source of video entertainment? How has Netflix been able to accomplish this? 

The main difference between Netflix and cable television is cost. Netflix cost $8 a month (Netflix.com). Cable television cost around $50 a month (timewarnercable.com). That is a large difference in cost. Netflix is much cheaper than cable, making it a much more reasonable option. However cable often comes in a package deal. Most cable subscribers own a package deal. Package deals can include internet and on demand channels. The more included in the package the more expensive it gets. The high end packages can cost over $100 a month. That is over ten times more than the cost of Netflix. That makes a big difference when deciding on a program package. While cable subscriptions cost a good amount of money, there are also a lot of free options for video entertainment. Examples of free streaming services include: YouTube and Crackle. YouTube has blown up over the past few years. The most popular videos on YouTube have upwards of billions of views. The sheer amount of videos on YouTube is in the billions. You can find a video of just about anything. From how to change a flat tire to funny cat videos, they are all available on YouTube. YouTube isn't the only free video entertainment service. Crackle is a free streaming service just like Netflix, but it has ads and not nearly as many shows. Crackle is a smaller service than Netflix and not as well known. Netflix has over 75 million subscribers (Smith 1). Crackle only has a couple million subscribers, which is nothing when compared to Netflix's huge subscriber base. YouTube and crackle are different services than Netflix and cable television, but they are still forms of video entertainment. There are many different kinds of video entertainment, but Netflix and cable television are the top competitors. 

Netflix is a very easy to use service, and it is very user friendly. On the other hand, people spend hours flipping through channels to find the right show to watch. Cable television has so many commercials it makes finding a show nearly impossible. Flipping through the television channels can be pain staking. No one wants to spend hours searching through the television just to find a channel that isn't on a commercial break. Approximately, there are 130 hours of commercials a year that Netflix subscribers aren't watching because they aren't watching cable television (Smith 2). That is a lot of time saved. That is equal to around six days. That's almost a full week of time that people that don't have Netflix waste watching commercials. Saving time is always a good thing. This statistic shows how commercials are a big weakness of cable television and a strength of Netflix. Netflix has a very user friendly selection process. There is a section that is called "Recommended for you". This section has a long list of shows and movies that are related to the shows that the user has already watched. This is very helpful for when deciding on a new show to watch. Netflix is organized into shows and movies. Each section has all the different genres, and you can organize by the genre. This makes it very easy to find a show. Say you want to watch a funny movie. You could go to the movie section and select comedies. There would be a list of comedies, sorted by most popular at the beginning. From that list it can be organized even further. You could narrow it down to romantic comedies or even stand-up comedy shows. Movie night has never been easier with Netflix.  

Movie night is not the only time that people choose Netflix over cable television. When it comes to hanging out with friends and watching some television show, it's more common to turn on Netflix than it is to flip through the channels of the television. It more convenient to pick a show to watch from Netflix than it is to flip through the television channels. Convenience is a big factor when considering on a form of video entertainment to watch. 

 With how limited you can make your options through sorting search results, there is a wide range of movies and television shows available on Netflix. Netflix has kid shows, classic series, originals, action movies, comedies, dramas, and pretty much every genre out there. There is a show or movie for everyone. Netflix is even available in other languages. "In certain countries, changing your language preferences will affect the content you see on the website and your devices. We do this to ensure you're only seeing titles that have audio, subtitles, or dubbing of the language you selected, making it easy to find what you're looking for. This feature is available in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Dutch Antilles Islands" (https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13245). Netflix is branching out to foreign countries that don't speak English. On the other hand, cable television is more focused on pop culture and doesn't have as many options when it comes to genres and television shows available to watch. This shows that Netflix is growing and evolving. 

Netflix not only has variety, it also has quality. The most popular television shows usually end up on Netflix. Friend, Seinfeld, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, are all great examples of popular shows that are on Netflix. Out of the ten most popular television series, 9 of them are on Netflix (http://www.imdb.com/search/title?title_type=tv_series). Out of those 9 shows that are on Netflix 4 shows are Netflix originals. Netflix originals are shows that are produced by Netflix, and are only available on Netflix. These shows tend to have lesser known actors and a smaller budget than big television company shows. The quality of these shows tend to be much higher though. The popularity of Netflix original shows has skyrocketed over the past few years. One Netflix original show, House of Cards, won three Primetime Emmy awards in 2013 (Smith 3). Those three awards were deserved and show how good Netflix original shows can be. House of Cards is one of Netflix's most popular shows. Some other Netflix original shows include Orange is the New Black, which is one of the most popular shows on Netflix. This goes to show how quality the shows that are available on Netflix. 

With how much Netflix is growing, Netflix is being incorporated into pop culture. Many people enjoy watching shows on Netflix. People talk about the latest episode of their favorite show with their friends on a daily basis. Discussing shows on Netflix has become a social trend and it is a very popular topic of conversation. "Netflix and chill?" is a new social trend. People use this saying for many different purposes. Sometimes it just means someone wants to hangout and watch Netflix, while others it can often mean more. "Netflix and chill? Has become a common joke among high school and college kids. People have made Halloween costumes that are about it. There are other social trends that have come out of Netflix, like binge watching shows. Binge watching shows on Netflix has become a social norm. Binge watching a show means that a person sits down and watches more than a couple episodes of the same show in one sitting. Sometimes binge watching can mean spending the entire day curled up on the couch with the TV set to a person's favorite show.  "Percentage of Netflix users that binge watch shows at least every few weeks: 61%" (Smith 1). More than over half of Netflix subscribers binge watch shows. That is a large amount of people. This is even more relevant in millennials, the youngest generation.  "Percentage of US millennials that use Netflix: 79%" (Smith 2). That is the vast majority of millennials. Most millennials prefer watching Netflix over traditional cable television. Millennials are more fluent with technology and know how to use the internet better than any other generation. "Percentage of US generation x that use Netflix: 38%" (Smith 2). That is less than half as many as the millennials. The baby boomer generation is even less than that. Millennials are more influential in pop culture and social norms. They are influenced the most by the media and are always trying the new social trend. Netflix has become a social trend that is super popular among such group of people. Therefore, Netflix has gained leverage over cable television through social trends and pop culture. 

Netflix is always changing to accommodate new technological advances. Netflix started off as a DVD delivery service. DVDs were the new technological advance back when Netflix first came out. Then the internet became the new craze and online streaming became very popular. After that, Netflix turned into an online service that was easily accessible through a computer. Netflix took that and ran with it to become the most watched video entertainment. Nowadays smart TVs are the new thing. Netflix is now available on smart TVs to be even more convenient. Netflix is now available on smart TVs, streaming media players, game consoles, set top boxes, Blu-ray players, smartphones, tablets, PCs, and laptops. That is nine different types of ways that people can watch Netflix. This makes it easy to access Netflix. With how popular, user friendly, and easy to access, it's no wonder that Netflix has become the most popular form of video entertainment. 

Netflix may be growing, but Cable television is not going away anytime soon. If someone wants to watch the South Carolina Gamecocks beat the Clemson tigers in a football game, they have to watch it on television. The game won't be available on Netflix. Netflix doesn't offer live streaming yet. The key word is "yet". Ted Sarandros, chief content officer of Netflix, was asked in an interview if Netflix planned on offering live sports broadcasting, he responded, "I will never say never, but I would say that where we sit today I don't think the on-demandness to sports is enough of an addition to the value proposition to change. I think the leagues have tremendous leverage in those deals, so it's not like we're going to get in and de-leverage the leagues ...  Not to say that it wouldn't someday down the road someday make sense." (http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Netflix-Ever-Broadcast-Live-Sports-Here-What-Company-Says-71968.html). This statement shows that live sports broadcasting being offered on Netflix is a possibility, but it is not a viable option right now. Cable television has the hold on that aspect of video entertainment right now. Sports leagues and teams have expensive contracts with television companies, like ESPN, that would be way too expensive for Netflix to match. The financial aspect of expanding to offering live sporting events makes it not viable. There is the option to offer pay per view events on Netflix, but subscribers would still have to pay extra to watch these events. Making it not a popular idea among Netflix officers. However, Netflix leaves it as a possibility for the future. In a few years people will be able to watch pay per view events like UFC fights and boxing fights. Live broadcasting of sports will stay with the big television companies that have contracts with sports programs and leagues. Cable television has live broadcasting over Netflix, but Netflix wins in every other category. Live broadcasting is insignificant. People can go watch a football game at a sports bar or even stream it online. There are a lot of live streaming sites out there for every sport. Cable television is useless when someone can just find the sports game online and put it up on the TV. 

In conclusion, Netflix has overtaken cable television as the primary source of video entertainment. Why and how has Netflix been able to accomplish this? The main way that Netflix beats cable television is cost. Netflix is significantly cheaper than cable. Netflix costs less than one fifth of a cable subscription. On top of that, a lot of people share Netflix accounts with friends, making it cost even less. While the cost is significantly different, Netflix and cable television share a lot of the same content. A majority of the popular shows that are on cable television are also available on Netflix. Some good examples of this are Friends, Family guy, Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and many more. Netflix doesn't have the commercials that cable television does, making it easier to watch a show on Netflix. The quality of Netflix shows has risen greatly since the beginning. Netflix has a lot of good quality shows that keep people interested in watching. Netflix originals are becoming even more popular, and people enjoy watching the old classic shows that Netflix has available. Some people go as far as binge watching entire seasons of shows. However it has become a social norm to do so. Society has come to adapt Netflix into many social norms and trends. Binge watching shows on Netflix is now a common pass time among college and high school students. Cable hasn't changed much over the past couple years, while in that same time period Netflix has been growing exponentially. Netflix has grown to spread across the globe. Netflix is very adaptive and continues to evolve and have new features every year. Netflix first started out as a DVD delivery company and now they have grown to nine different platforms to watch from. From smart TVs, to gaming consoles, to Blu-ray players, to laptops, and more. Basically anything that can connect to the internet can play Netflix.  Cable television is still a very popular source of video entertainment. Live broadcasting is only available on cable television, and Netflix doesn't plan on expanding to that realm in the near future. Overall, Netflix is better than cable television and has overtaken it as the primary source of video entertainment. But why does this all matter? Well the future of video entertainment is what's at stake. Billions of people watch some sort of video entertainment every day. Netflix and cable television are the top two forms of video entertainment. Video entertainment is one of, if not, the most popular form of entertainment out there. People like to spend their free time relaxing and watching a movie or show.   
