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Subscribers Pay 61 Cents Per Hour of Cable, But Only 20 Cents Per Hour of Netflix (allflicks.net)

Posted by BeauHD on from the this-or-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes from a math-heavy report via AllFlicks: The folks at AllFlicks decided to crunch some numbers to determine just how much more expensive cable is than Netflix. They answered the question: how much does Netflix cost per hour of content viewed, and how does that compare with cable's figures? AllFlicks reports: "We know from Netflix's own numbers that Netflix's more than 75 million users stream 125 million hours of content every day. So that's (roughly) 100 minutes per user, per day. Using the price of Netflix's most popular plan ($9.99) and a 30-day month, we can say that the average user is paying about 0.33 cents per minute of content, or 20 cents an hour. Not bad! But what about cable? Well, Nielsen tells us that the average American adult cable subscriber watches 2,260 minutes of TV per week (including timeshifted TV). That's equivalent to 5.38 hours per day, or 161.43 hours per 30-day month. Thanks to Leichtman Research, we know that the average American pays $99.10 per month for cable TV. That means that subscribers are paying a whopping 61.4 cents per hour to watch cable TV -- more than three times as much as users pay per hour of Netflix!"

13 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Cable content is worth more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Most Netflix content has been off the air for years. It's cheaper content. Other than their original shows, which is admittedly increasingly growing in size and value, generally cable offers more valuable access than Netflix does.

  2. uhm, no.... by PublicSchill · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Netflix costs $3 per person for 4 people to view it, but that includes 5 profiles. So realistically it's rare all 5 people want to watch at the same time. So it's quite easy to pay less than that. Cable is usually at least $30 to $40 per month for a household. That's 10x as expensive for the cheapest plans available. Not to mention Netflix doesn't have commercials... You can't compare the average hours per user for cable and netflix. They aren't equal... At best you can compare the cost per person. The number of hours is highly variable, and not to mention it doesn't change the monthly cost anyways...

  3. Netflix v. Cable? How about Netflix v. HBO by speedplane · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems like a false comparison. Netflix lacks news, sports and the vast amount of programming that is available on Cable ... it better be cheaper! A much more interesting comparison would be Netflix and HBO.

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  4. ..doesnt factor in connection cost. by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This also doesnt factor in connection cost. Thats 20 cents per hour for people that somehow have internet costs counted on a different ledger.

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    1. Re:..doesnt factor in connection cost. by redmid17 · · Score: 3

      True but how many people do? I know it's more common in non-US countries. I commonly see people gripe about Rogers in Canada, for example.

      However, for me, my cable is nearly always bundled with internet in a fashion that makes it nearly or as expensive to just have cable. I've juggled RCN, Comcast, and a few other providers over the years. Now, with RCN, even with my subsidized deal where I essentially pay taxes (thanks HOA!) and my phone for my TV package, I still probably get 3 or 4 to 1 cent in the Netflix:Cable debate. Hell the biggest reason I have cable at all is for sports. I watch far too many for my own good, but just getting the internet would boost my sports outlay considerably between the MLB/NBA/NFL packages, ESPN GO, or the bar tab I'd rack up watching my favorite out of market teams.

    2. Re:..doesnt factor in connection cost. by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It also does not count for the time you are spending watching ads.

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    3. Re:..doesnt factor in connection cost. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      it ALSO doesn't account for when people watch netflix, they're WATCHING NETFLIX -- actively logging-in, selecting a program, and starting its playback, and then sitting down to watch it.. netflix also is in a position to have very detailed statistics on viewing habits..

      neither of these is true for 'regular' television...

    4. Re:..doesnt factor in connection cost. by jbmartin6 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have Netflix on while on /.. Which probably explains the low quality of most of my posts.

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    5. Re:..doesnt factor in connection cost. by Maxwell · · Score: 4, Insightful

      OP's point was that Neilson can tell when your TV is on, but they can't tell if you are actually watching it. The morning news on mute with no one in the room counts as 'watched'. With netflix, generally, you have to explicitly turn it on and pick a show so you are more likely to be actually watching the content. That might explain the huge averages - the average american watches 5.4 hours of TV every. single. day? more likely they have TV on somewhere, but not necessarily watching it

  5. 5.38 hours per day by mwvdlee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    5.38 hours per day

    I doubt this figure; this is an absurd amount of TV to watch on a daily basis on average.
    If you have a job, this figure pretty much means you spend all your free time on TV.
    Is this just number the cumulative amount of hours of all TV's in an average family household turned on, or is this actually time spent watching TV by an average individual?

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    1. Re:5.38 hours per day by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Informative

      Generally speaking, the industry that measures it considers you to be watching if you're in the same room. And I agree.

    2. Re:5.38 hours per day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2016-reports/total-audience-report-q1-2016.pdf

      This report claims 4:31 live TV and 0:33 time-shifted TV (DVR) on average.

  6. Rant about cable by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How much does Netflix cost again? $10 per month? It's so insignificant that I'm not even sure. I look over my credit card bill every month making sure all the charges look legit and I don't even usually notice Netflix.

    It might not work for all customers, but I would still pay for Netflix if it was $25 a month. I would complain at that price, but I wouldn't cancel my service.

    cable TV? Screw that. People complain about the paucity of things to watch on Netflix, but have you looked at your cable TV lineup? That's even worse and I used to pay close to $150 per month for that