At this point, it's hard to imagine a time in which streaming video wasn't a major part of people's lives. For years, YouTube was the best way to go to find videos online – now there's Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Go – for millions of people, online streaming services are a main source of entertainment.
It's not as if the transition from traditional television to digital streaming is self-contained, either: for years, cable subscriptions have been on the decline as more and more people cut the cord. It makes a lot of sense: why bother paying a lot more for one service when you can subscribe to several different ones at a cheaper price?
If you needed any further proof of that, look no further than Comcast itself: as part of an earnings report released earlier today (via EnGadget), the cable provider confirmed that it now has more Internet service subscribers than it has cable customers.
The margin is still narrow, but it's definitely there: Comcast now has 22.55 million Internet subscribers compared with 22.3 million cable customers. Comcast typically sees a drop in cable subscribers during the slower summer months, but the 2015 drop hasn't been quite as sharp as it was in previous years. Even so, one thing is clear: Internet is on the rise, and cable is seemingly on its way out.
That being said, it's not as if Comcast isn't already moving in a more Internet-centric direction: the company launched its own standalone streaming service in the form of Xfinity Stream earlier this month, a move that CEO Brian Roberts describes as ..."attracting to younger consumers."
While many have claimed that streaming services would one day take over traditional cable companies, this may be the first sign of it actually happening. Only time will tell if Comcast will need to take more drastic steps in keeping up with changing times.
Photo: Mike Mozart | Flickr
