Netflix: All the successful people I know don't watch TV When Netflix landed in the UK, it looked to be the true alternative to expensive packages like Virgin's and SKY's. But after posting their latest results, which showed that (in the US, at least) subscriber numbers had failed to meet their targets, is Netflix really going to be the future of TV...? I know many women who love it: plenty of shows feature strong female characters and making political shows "accessible" (House of Cards, for instance, starring Robin Wright, last week scooped several Emmy nominations - for the actor herself, the director David Finger, and Kevin Spacey). But nothing stays the same for very long, nowadays. And no sooner has Netflix established itself in the UK (though there's still a long, long way to go in terms of brand awareness) than along comes Spanish-based Wuaki.tv, with its permanently discounted package and the ability to buy new TV and film releases in one place. The advantage: sites that actually sell films and TV shows are allowed to showcase them by studios much sooner than those who offer rental-only opportunities, like Netflix (where new releases can take up to a year to appear). And though their fees are still diddly-squat compared to the established UK TV subscription services, Netflix charges £5.99 and LoveFilm's £4.99 for unlimited streaming. On their site, Wuaki promise "50% off for life" - bringing it down £2.99, and driving home the price differential. Taylor Schilling stars in Orange Is The New Black, Netflix's latest original series Photo: Netflix So: Netflix signed up 100,000 fewer subscribers in the last financial period than was anticipated - which caused their share price to drop by as much as 7.2 per cent. But isn't social media the real rival to TV channels...? Younger viewers, for instance - who can barely be prised from their smartphones (if our house is anything to go by) are watching drastically less TV than older viewers: over 65s watch 40 hours of TV a week, which is twice as much as those aged 16-24, figures show. Something for the Netflixes, the SKYs and the LoveFilms of this world truly to bite their nails over, I'd say. Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings brushed off the share sell off earlier this week, saying that Netflix's stock has always been "volatile" because of its "aggressive" strategy to plough domestic profits into international growth. He pledged to continue in investing in original programmes. But there's another interesting dimension to this story, from a business point of view. Most of the very successful people I've interviewed over my years as a journalist simply don't watch TV. Or sometimes catch the television news, and occasionally "fess up to one "guilty pleasure" show. (Mine for years was Desperate Housewives, currently The White Queen. Which adds up to - oh, all of an hour a week.) When people ask me how I get everything done that I do, I answer honestly: "I don't watch TV." At a very conservative estimate, that gives me 21 hours more in my life every week (approaching three average working days). Go figure. My father-in-law proudly displayed a bumper sticker (he was American: it's allowed), which exhorted: "Turn off TV, Turn on Life." I'd say that there's a very real prospect of people doing just that, and switching the "opiate of the masses" off, in favour of social media. (Or even actually meeting up; which I predict is the post-social media trend. More of which anon.) As horror stories go for Netflix and their ilk, blockbuster shows like "Hemlock Grove" show have nothing on that scary prospect...