Netflix Projected to Become Officially Bigger Than Cable by Year's End

Netflix is now projected to have a bigger subscriber base than cable by year's end.

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Image via Complex Original
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RIP cable. Your anti-internet vibes will surely be mourned for many years minutes to come. Though the final nail in the cable coffin hasn't quite been hammered in just yet, a recent comparison of cable's growth versus the booming Netflix platform again proves the traditional television format's days are indeed numbered.

Samuel Bennett, a data visualizer whose recent Reddit-shared comparison chart was spotted byUproxx, has managed to show just how dire the cable sickness is going to get in the months ahead. As of 2016, Netflix (47.5 million) is roughly a million subscribers behind cable (i.e. not satellite and other alternative TV methods). Given the streaming platform's current estimated growth rate, Netflix could easily surpass that threshold by the end of this year, or the top of 2017 at the latest:

Netflix vs cable

A recent study from the firm cg42 projected that cable providers could lose as much as a billion bucks in revenue over the next 12 months. The study, excerpted by the Wall Street Journal in September, estimateed that pay-TV companies lose approximately $1,248 per cord-cutting rebel each year. The average savings for switching to a streaming-only lifestyle? About $100, the study found.

As part of a September study on when exactly subscribers get hooked on a particular series, Netflix discovered that the viewing habits of its cable-battling subscriber base are surprisingly uniform. "The hooked findings give us confidence that there is an appetite for original and unique content all over the world, which is why we're excited to deliver variety in stories to our members, whether they're political dramas from France or musical dramas from the Bronx," Cindy Holland, Netflix’s VP of Original Content, said at the time.

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Hate it for ya, cable.

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