Eighteen years into Netflix and chill, and cable companies are finally reaching the breaking point. Netflix may have seemed pretty stupid when it was founded in 1997, but now it’s one of the most popular ways to watch TV shows and movies, and it’s still under $10.
Comcast, the leading provider in cable TV, seems pretty worried about their newfound competition with Netflix. Earlier this year, Comcast announced a streaming service similar to Netflix that would they will release in 2016. It’s like they took everything you loved about Netflix, made it worse, and then bumped up the price. Comcast has said that it will cost $15 a month, and you can only get it if you already pay for Comcast cable anyway, so it’s basically just adding $15 to your bill that’s probably a couple hundred dollars already. One of the key features of Netflix is that you can watch it wherever you want as long as you log in to your account, but the new Comcast streaming service only works when connected to your home Wi-Fi.
“It’s a potential threat,” said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. “We can all compete for consumer affection.”
A lot of Netflix’s popularity is with the younger generation, and this could have an effect on the performance of students at school. The design of Netflix revolves around being able to watch what you want when you want to.
Instead of waiting for something to be on TV, you can just load it up on Netflix whenever you want to. You might think that people could get more sleep because they don’t have to stay up late to watch the shows they want, but that isn’t always the case.
“Binge-watching” multiple episodes at a time can cause people to stay up later than they normally would when their show ends.
“Netflix lets me binge-watch shows,” said sophomore Matthew Larson. “You can’t do that with cable.”
Binge-watching doesn’t have to happen late at night, it could also be a way to motivate students. Most students are constrained by time, and you can’t usually choose when your free time is. When you have to balance homework, sports, and even a job, TV can be a big stress-reliever, but you can’t always wait for your show to come on. Netflix has about 2,000 different TV shows and almost 10,000 movies, so you can just pick what you want and relax, and you don’t have to worry about commercials.
“It helps me feel less stressed about my school work,” said sophomore Sam Estes.
“I get more sleep because I don’t watch it too much,” said Estes.