# When did the internet become your main source of video entertainment

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-internet-become-your-main-source-of-video-entertainment/973574>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 21, 2022, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-internet-become-your-main-source-of-video-entertainment/973574 "2022-10-21T02:50:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-internet-become-your-main-source-of-video-entertainment/973574/21 "2022-10-22T13:40:34Z")

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I cut the cable about 3 years ago and don’t miss it at all. I now belong to 5 streaming services which in total cost ~1/3 my old cable bill. Amazon Prime is my favorite service for entertainment. Wondrium (_The Great Courses_) is my favorite for learnin’.

I thought I would miss first run network shows, but it turns out the good shows end up on one or more of the streaming services eventually, and I don’t mind waiting.

What surprised me is the high quality of many of the series and movies now created by the streaming service companies. I can no longer use my geezer card and proclaim TV was way better _back in the day_, when the big 3 networks dominated the airwaves. I’ll have to find something else to complain about (_…maybe that noise kids call music these days_ 😡).

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**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-internet-become-your-main-source-of-video-entertainment/973574/22 "2022-10-22T14:47:29Z")

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Around 2002 but I used the original DVD-service Netflix for awhile after that. Then I used Redbox rarely as well as bought a few dvds over the years.

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**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-internet-become-your-main-source-of-video-entertainment/973574/23 "2022-10-22T21:02:29Z")

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Defining video entertainment as what I actively watch versus just having the whatever’s on cable TV in the background, probably ~2007 when I discovered private Asian torrent sites.

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**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2022, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-internet-become-your-main-source-of-video-entertainment/973574/24 "2022-10-23T00:41:34Z")

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> [@WildaBeast](#):
>
> For me it was more of a gradual shift from cable to streaming, but it did begin in 2010-11. 2010 was the year I got my first smart TV

Actually, come to think of it it started a few years earlier than that, probably more like 2007-08, back when TV networks had episodes of their shows available on their web sites for free with ads. I didn’t have a smart TV or streaming device back then, but if I missed an episode of say, _Lost_ and wanted to get caught up, I’d watch it on [abc.com](http://abc.com) on my computer.

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