Hastings: linear TV dead by 2030

The CEO of US streaming giant Netflix has predicted that linear television will cease to exist by 2030.

Reed Hastings said the medium will be extinct in 16 years’ time and compared traditional TV to an ageing horse.

At an event this week in Mexico City to announce Netflix’s Latin American plans, he said TV was “kind of like the horse. The horse was good until we had the car.”

Hastings has expressed his thoughts on the death of linear TV before, predicting in April last year that it would be replaced by internet TV.

Netflix, along with other streamers in the US such as Hulu and Amazon Prime, have all led to the decline in traditional TV viewing and cable subscription rates in recent years.

US broadcasters HBO, Showtime and CBS are now also getting in on the SVoD game while Starz recently committed US$20m to a new OTT platform.

However, there is still room for the Californian firm to grow, as it gears up to launch in Australia and New Zealand following its move into six new major European territories earlier this year.

Hasting’s comments follow equally inflammatory ones made by Netflix’s content chief Ted Sarandos at Mipcom last month. Sarandos said the streamer wants to speed up the “antiquated” film distribution model as it begins to offer original movies.

Netflix now has more than 50 million users in over 40 countries and has already announced original dramas Marseilles for France and The Crown in the UK.