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By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
It’s no surprise that the entertainment landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade as more people “cut the cord” and stopped paying for cable. One of the few reasons to continue to pay for services was access to live sports, the one segment that streaming had not been able to break, but now, major sports are available on streaming platforms, including Paramount +, Amazon, and in the age of YouTube. Netflix removed the last bastion of cable, weekly live events, with the arrival of WWE Raw on January 6, and with a seamless viewer experience watched by over 6 million people worldwide, the death of cable has finally arrived.
WWE Has Arrived On Netflix
For nearly 30 years, pro wrestling has been one of the highest-rated programs on cable, from WCW Monday Nitro i WWE Rawduring the famous era of Monday Night War in the late 90s, the shows would attract over 13 million viewers, together, every week. That’s a small fraction of the Netflix subscriber base today, but in the cable universe, that made them the most successful shows of the era. Now no cable show is pulling in anywhere near those numbers, with an even number WWE Raw managed about 2.2-3 million on a good week, but even that was still good enough to make it one of the top three rated cable shows each week.
Netflix and TKO, the new parent company of the WWE, have reported that even on the streaming service, WWE Raw attracted a better number than in years on the USA Network: 4.9 million viewers. Once that number was announced and the success of the move to Netflix reached investors, it became clear that cable no longer had anything to attract studios, viewers, or even advertisers. Live events were the last thing that sustained the dying industry, and with that gone, what will the cable companies do since cutting rates and charging less, the obvious solution, will never happen?
Live Events That Everyone Had Cable For
The Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight on Netflix earlier in 2024 was a disaster that gave the cable companies hope that WWE’s move to streaming wouldn’t work out. Buffering issues made one of the worst boxing matches of all time unbearable, but when WWE Raw started with a level of pomp and circumstance that no other organization can match, there were no issues. I watched from start to finish and never had a single issue with my stream.
That is unlikely WWE Raw It will attract the same level of viewership over the next few weeks, as the debut is expected to attract new fans, but we start the road to WrestleMania, which is historically when the company gets hot. At the same time, the NFL playoffs are starting, and every week, multiple games will be available on streaming, either Paramount +, Amazon Prime, or YouTube television. That’s a number of live events every week that have broken free from traditional television, and over Thanksgiving, Netflix successfully broadcast an NFL Game, proving that it can do everything cable does, but for now, it’s n cheaper.
Why even keep Cable?
Few major shows are exclusive to cable, with even the most successful shows either available on a streamer when they debut or coming to one soon after. Netflix’s ability to premiere movies and shows from any genre, including the disappointing Atlas starring Jennifer Lopez or a surprise hit Rebel Ridgeand get more viewers in one day than cable hits like Shogun winning in their lifetime is simply second to none. Even then, Shogun was available on Hulu with the addition of live TV, so if that’s an option, and now wrestling, the last fandom stuck on cable, has made the jump, why subscribe to cable at all?
It’s a question that more and more people will be asking themselves, especially with AEW coming up Maxif you have Netflix and even one additional streaming service, what does cable offer? You can enjoy countless replays of ridiculousincluding episodes that are not on Paramount +, and they can spend hours surfing through channels to find something to watch or watch one of the countless streaming services available.
