Leading networks open path to online streaming

By: Zuhayr Alam

The television industry, which normally accepts and makes changes at a glacial pace, has just experienced two game changers.

Two of the most watched television shows in the modern era, Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory, are on HBO and CBS respectively. Those two stations have offered what could change the landscape of television and how viewers can see the content they want. The two stations are now offering online subscriptions to all of their television content, and anyone who is interested does not need to be subscribed to cable.

Online subscriptions will start to affect everybody. People who watch television programs mainly on the Internet will start to see their options increase, as well as the competition for their money, and people who watch cable television should begin to see a decline in their cable bills, as these changes will start to put a strain on cable providers.

CBS’s Internet programming would be priced at $5.99 per month, whereas Time Warner Cable has not released a price for HBO.

The recent influx of TV stations moving to the web have been brought on mainly because of high cable prices and a large number of channels on cable going unwatched, resulting in customers paying for channels they never use. Because of this, if a customer only watches The Big Bang Theory and CBS Evening News, both of which will be on CBS’s online service, that person could pay the $5.99 instead of the $70 for a full cable subscription.

Recent times have brought joy for cord-cutters, with Netflix seeing its subscriber growth grow by the month, and now CBS and HBO have brought a new wave of competition to the web.

Some people are hoping that this influx of Internet television makes it so a person can choose which channels he or she wants to subscribe to.

Junior Ben Hertz primarily uses Netflix and other Internet sources to watch shows.

“I can’t always watch right during the time slot for most TV shows, and I don’t usually have time to channel surf, so I would definitely prefer to use a subscription type deal.”