The Washington Post published an article last Friday called With DVD, TV Viewers Can Channel Their Choices that talks about the group of TV fans who don’t bother to subscribe to TiVo, cable, or satellite TV. This group buys or rents DVD collections of popular TV series such as Law & Order Special Victims Unit, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Six Feet Under, and watches recorded programming exclusively.
One of the companies that is benefiting most from this new trend is the on-line DVD rental company called Netflix. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer, made a couple of really interesting points in the article:
The DVD is becoming a fifth network that [viewers] get to program themselves. Appointment TV doesn’t work like it used to.
No one who cares about live events such as sports or news is really in a position to get rid of their set-top box and the attendant monthly fees. But, I’ve heard from a few people who are either thinking about getting rid of their cable or satellite subscription, or have already done it. They don’t seem to be doing this out of some sense of protest. They simply don’t think that the monthly fees are worth it for the limited number of programs that they would actually watch.