Live Sports One Of the Only Thing Keeping Cable TV Alive
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Everyone is streaming nowadays, so why would anyone need or want to pay so much for cable TV? Live sports. In fact, live sports is one of the only things keeping cable TV providers like DISH TV, DirecTV, and Spectrum TV alive and in business.

Live Sports On Cable TV Compared To Streaming

A whopping 102 million people watched the Super Bowl this year and it continues to be one of the top 10 most watched programs in recent years. However, it doesn't stop at major sports events. It's all kinds of live sports that dominate cable TV because unlike movies and most TV shows, watching reruns of sporting events takes away from the excitement. Let's take a look at the numbers:

Year

Percentage Of Sports In Top 10 Most Watched Broadcasts

Us Netflix Subscribers

2015

40%

43 million

2016

60%

48 million

2017

75%

53 million

2018

85%

59 million

2019

75%

61 million

The Popularity Of Live Sports Isn't Growing

If you take a quick look at the numbers, you could be deceived. Live sports isn't growing in viewership and as sports fans already know; live sports across all leagues have always been popular. What is really happening is that everything else is moving off of cable TV while live sports stays.

How Streaming Is Leaving Cable TV Behind

Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and all other streaming services have forever changed how Americans watch TV. Why wait every week to tune into a new episode when you can be patient for a few months and get the whole season to binge on for a fraction of the price? Plus, most streaming services now have their own original content that is easily just as good if not better to what you can tune into on cable TV. Netflix alone spent $15 billion dollars writing, producing and recording their original shows, documentaries and movies in 2019. From Orange Is The New Black to Ozark, Stranger Things, Russian Doll and Big Mouth; there's so much original content that you'd be hard pressed not to find a Netflix original that you didn't love.

Streaming services don't announce their subscribers or how many people are watching their shows, but other than word of mouth you now know thanks to the Emmy Awards. Remember the Emmy? Maybe not if you don't have cable anymore, but the Emmy Awards is an award show that gives awards for the best in TV everywhere. In 2013 shows produced by streaming services like Netflix started being nominated for awards and have quickly increased. The numbers don't lie; Americans love more than live sports, they love original shows too!

In 2013 there were only 5 streaming nominations with no winners. In 2019 the numbers skyrocketed to 61 nominations and 12 Emmy winners. As a result of some fantastic original programming, TV shows have steadily dropped off the most watched broadcasts every year.

Live Sports Are Keeping Cable TV Providers In Business

Not everything created needs to be watched live. In fact, it hasn't been. Even streaming services pump the breaks on original content and release one show a week. For example Hulu's Handmaid's Tale. We had to wait a whole excruciating week in between episodes leaving us at the edges of our seats until the next. Simply put, households without sports fans don't have much of a use for cable TV anymore and have cut the cord. They don't need to pay premium prices for live TV whereas those households that do have sports fans very well may be keeping the doors open at DISH Network, Xfinity and DirecTV.

Families are asking themselves - $8.99 a month for a Netflix subscription or $59.99 a month for a DISH Network subscription? It's not a difficult choice for families wanting to lower their cable bills. For sports fans, live TV is their lifeline to entertainment they love. It's understandable that they would hold onto their cable TV subscriptions as long as they can or at least until prices at FuboTV come down to streaming price reality.

Popular Original Programming That Dominates Viewership

Popular classics like The Office, Friends, Fresh Prince Of Bel Air and many others are available across multiple platforms. But what makes streaming services special is their original programming. Here's what the big five streaming services have available:

Streaming Service

Monthly Cost

Popular Original Programming

Netflix

$8.99/Month to $17.99/Month

Orange Is The New Black, Ozark, Stranger Things, & BoJack Horseman

Hulu

$5.99/Month to $70.99/Month

The Handmaid's Tale, Shrill, Pen15 & The Act

Disney+

$8/Month

Loki, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, & Luca

Amazon Prime Video

$8.99/Month

Fleabag, Catastrophe, Invincible, & Undone

HBO Max

$9.99/Month to $14.99/Month

Friends: The Reunion, The Undoing, I May Destroy You, Made For Love & The Nevers

New Releases Available On Streaming Platforms & Theaters

With the COVID-19 pandemic, streaming services adjusted and got even better. Now streaming services like HBO Max and Disney+ are releasing new movies on their platforms as well as in theaters as theaters open up.

HBO Max has released In The Heights, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Space Jam A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad and many more coming soon. All of them premiere in both theaters and on HBO Max on the same exact day. All you need is the HBO Max $14.99/month ad free plan to watch them the same day.

Disney+ has released Luca, Raya And The Last Dragon, Mulan, Soul, and Onward have all been released on their streaming platform same day as theaters. They also have a premier access option that allows subscribers to get early streaming access to a movie that's still playing in theaters. Unfortunately some movies are premier access only and others aren't; it all depends.