For many years, television has been a key component for entertainment in society. It is what provides people with the suspenseful, long-awaited TV shows and movies they crave. Because of this massive crave for television, people start to pick out the qualities that need innovation. Viewers want less commercial breaks and more episodes to watch in one period. It has come to the point where viewers even want to skip through the introduction to get straight to the show. It is these qualities that have changed television from basic broadcasting to instant streaming.

Networks like Netflix, Hulu and Apple TV typically have more of an advantage in the change in television today. They are the networks that possess the qualities viewers want in television. They have the ability to binge watch seasons of TV shows all in one sitting, without having one commercial break. Netflix even gives people the ability to skip the recaps of episodes and the introductions.

“I enjoy watching Netflix over TV because I can binge [and] I don’t have commercials,” junior Bailey Yturralde said. “If ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ comes on on TV, [my mom and I say], ‘Why don’t we just turn on Netflix? Then we can just watch it without any breaks.’”

Another reason as to why more and more people are switching over from broadcasting television is availability. Streaming makes it very easy for viewers to find their favorite shows on the go. Broadcast television on the other hand tends to be limited to watching at home. Even programs with their own apps typically have only a select amount of episodes viewers can watch.

“I think people are switching over to streaming television because it is faster and you get to choose what you watch at any time over waiting for your show to appear on TV at a certain time and date,” senior Sophia Ruiz said.

With the massive influx of viewers transitioning to streaming television, it is starting to become more difficult for the pre-paid broadcasting channels to keep up with their ratings. It is causing these channels to lose money due to subscribers slimming down pre-paid channels and putting the money towards networks like Netflix and Hulu.

“TV networks have been left flat-footed in the transition to streaming video, unsure whether to license all their content to services like Netflix or keep it locked up with traditional pay-TV operators, which are slowly losing subscribers,” Time Magazine writer Victor Luckerson said in the article “How You Watch TV Is About To Change Forever.”

Entertainment is changing so much that networks like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video are creating their own original shows and movies like “Stranger Things” and “Bates Motel.”

“‘Bates Motel’ is a Netflix show,” Yturralde said. “I watch that one; and I watch ‘Stranger Things’ too.”

Ruiz also mentioned how she watches Netflix exclusive shows.

“[A] show that I prefer that [is] only on Netflix [is] ‘Stranger Things,’” Ruiz said.

Additionally, society is becoming more impatient through easy access to TV through programs like direct streaming. People are expressing how they are tired of dealing with commercials and waiting each week for a new episode to premiere. As society starts becoming more innovative and makes things easier to access, the less people want to wait.

Whether this change is for the better or worse is debatable. All people know now is that everything, including their entertainment, is changing. The decision that remains is if people are going to stand their ground and stick with what they know, or if they are going to move with and adapt to this change.