All roads lead to cable

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on streaming platforms, FAST channels, and the future of entertainment, follow Charles Pulliam-Moore. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepbackhere.

How it started

Before Netflix fully committed to becoming a streaming service and leaving DVDs behind, the company experimented with the idea of giving its subscribers a physical boxthat could access high-resolution digital copies of movies. Films would have been downloaded to the box in the evening and become available to users the next day. But Netflix changed course around 2006 once it saw people were flocking to watch grainy viral videos on YouTube. Though Netflix had already been making waves by disrupting the movie rental business, pivoting to streaming turned the company into a powerhouse that posed...

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