I have been finishing off season two of Arrow on Netflix, and it occurred to me that a show like Arrow wouldn’t have been possible without the DVD/Streaming service. Sure there were shows like 24 and morning soap operas before Netflix, but not a lot of them. The reason was that if you missed an episode there was no good way to catch up, and TV stations did want to take a chance that you would stop watching if you missed a show, or worse never start watching because you missed the first season.
TiVo was a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t wide spread enough, and it obviously didn’t have any seasons you missed. Now pretty much everyone has a Netflix subscription. It allows people to binge watch a TV show, and once they catch up they have no choice but to start watching the show live. If they miss a show they can catch up with Netflix competitors Amazon, Hulu, On Demand, or the Station’s website. The producers of Breaking Bad and The Killing have both expressed how Netflix is the reason their shows stayed on the air because people could catch up.
TV stations are taking the next logical step. Neflix was good for business and serialized TV, so now it is time be their “own” Netflix. CBS and HBO are dropping the cable requirement and launching their own Netflix competitors with their own content, and I am sure a lot of that content will be serialized. You know like Supergirl coming next fall to CBS.