Can Netflix kill cable TV if it's part of it?

Streaming television services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu have long held appeal to so-called cord-cutters who seek to enjoy TV content without having to subscribe to conventional cable TV.

Who needs 1,000 channels, they ask, with a monthly bill to match?

The challenge: Many cable companies also serve as Internet service providers, making it difficult to truly cut the cord. Netflix announced that it had struck a deal with the seventh-largest cable operator in the US, Suddenlink, to put its streaming service on cable boxes for the cable operator's 1.2 million customers.

In late April, three smaller cable companies -- RCN, Grande Communications, and Atlantic Broadband -- announced that they too would carry Netflix on cable boxes provided to some 500,000 customers through an agreement with TiVo. Netflix and its peers, commonly referred to as over-the-top (OTT) content, were supposed to disrupt the traditional cable business. Have they become part of the problem?

"Netflix has been commonly positioned as competitive to cable TV," said David Isenberg, chief marketing and strategy officer for Atlantic Broadband. "But the two services are really very complementary."