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Where Netflix Will Take Us

Actually, I have no idea where Netflix will take us. But since the streaming service is rapidly taking over an entire continent, I thought it was interesting to read that while online streaming is growing by leaps and bounds, the number of online streamers (at least in the U.S.) isn’t growing nearly as fast:

Overall, Nielsen reported that time spent watching online video rose 45% from a year ago, although the number of viewers increased only 3.1%. Viewers streamed 28% more video and spent 45% more time watching video online.

So a similar number of people are watching almost half again as much online video. If it keeps up at this rate, there will still be a lot of people who prefer not to watch Netflix (or can’t afford it, since a paid site plus the cost of high-speed internet could make the whole thing something of an elite pastime), but the ones who do will be watching so much of it every year that we will have to undergo detox. And that means the “TV addiction” jokes that proliferated in the ’50s can be brought back in the form of “Netflix addiction” jokes.

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