9% expected to cut their cable this year

[Tailgate]

Short article showing study about how quickly the paid cable biz is shrinking.

Here is the article


Highlight
Cord-cutting is being matched by a rise in streaming, also at a rate faster than ever. Per the Interactive Advertising Bureau's latest TV industry study, 56% of U.S. adults own a streaming-enabled television, up from one-third of adults in 2015.


Confucious said 'may we live in interesting times' ... advances in disruptive technologies are at lightning speed now and turning many industries on their heads... sure glad I retired from the TV biz when I did.

 

[neihn]

No wonder Comcast kept calling me and offer Cable TV + internet deal - I currently only have internet with them. Even with the good package deal, I always politely declined the offer, nothing on the cable TV really interests me.

 

[W2R]

I don't know about other people, but I cut the cable a couple of years ago because TV has nothing to offer me any more.

I'm just not interested.

Higher quality news and/or fewer ads would get me back, but that doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

 

[hesperus]

And at the same time, the cable companies have seen the writing on the wall and are quickly raising their stand alone broadband access rates. One way or another, they'll work to maintain their (ridiculous) profit margins.

 

[Midpack]

We're cutting the cable in July unless Dish Network wants to continue to give us the almost 50% discount they gave us in Feb when we called to cancel our satellite service with them. There are too many FULL drop in streaming options with local majors and cloud DVR's available today at about $40/mo in our large metro area!

 

[MooreBonds]

We're cutting the cable in July unless Dish Network wants to continue to give us the almost 50% discount they gave us in Feb when we called to cancel our satellite service with them. There are too many FULL drop in streaming options with local majors and cloud DVR's available today at about $40/mo in our large metro area!

The only thing is, if you go with an "internet service only" subscription, you often pay quite a bit per month and if you bundle Cable/Internet, you end up paying only maybe $20/month more. Granted, I haven't yet fully researched streaming options (I'm a very late adopter to technology because of the exponential increase in depreciation hit as well as technological advances), so I don't even really know what exists out there, other than hearing a few brands like Roku/Google/etc.

Was just married in December, and will be moving in July. Wife and I each grew up/lived without cable, but are more than likely going to splurge with some "premium" content when we settle into the new home ("premium" in the sense that you have to pay for it compared to over-the-air freebies; just standard stuff like Food Network/HGTV).

 

[Danmar]

The only thing is, if you go with an "internet service only" subscription, you often pay quite a bit per month and if you bundle Cable/Internet, you end up paying only maybe $20/month more.

.

Yes, this is the issue, ie cable cutters have no intention of getting rid of their internet so since the cable companies are usually the internet providers they will still do OK as investments. John Malone was recently quoted as basically saying this.

 

[Midpack]

The only thing is, if you go with an "internet service only" subscription, you often pay quite a bit per month and if you bundle Cable/Internet, you end up paying only maybe $20/month more. Granted, I haven't yet fully researched streaming options (I'm a very late adopter to technology because of the exponential increase in depreciation hit as well as technological advances), so I don't even really know what exists out there, other than hearing a few brands like Roku/Google/etc.

With all due respect, only true if you don't really explore your options. We dropped our landline long ago and like others at ER.org we've always had separate internet, television and cell service - and no "bundle" ever even matched my total cost, they were all noticeably more! I've checked several times a year all along as I'm always looking for the best value. It's quite a racket, and has been for a long time...

 

[athena53]

The only thing is, if you go with an "internet service only" subscription, you often pay quite a bit per month and if you bundle Cable/Internet, you end up paying only maybe $20/month more.

It was crazier than that in my area. I was looking at Google Fiber + Netflix and asked Comcast (my current provider) what they'd charge for Internet Only- they wanted more than I was paying for the Internet + TV + Landline package for 200bps Internet alone!

So, as soon as Google Fiber was available, I got it. I'm saving $70/month and now I have (theoretically) faster Internet, although I swear I can't tell the difference. I called Comcast to cancel and pointed out this pricing idiocy. She actually admitted that in areas where they had to compete with Google Fiber they offered TV "for free".

I miss such culturally enriching offerings as "My 600-lb. Life" and "Say Yes to the Dress" but for $70/month I'll live without them.

 

[Sunset]

I don't know about other people, but I cut the cable a couple of years ago because TV has nothing to offer me any more.

I'm just not interested.

Higher quality news and/or fewer ads would get me back, but that doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

+1
We cut the cable about 12 years ago.

We get some over the air digital HD tv channels, and use netflix for $9/mo.
All that is too much to watch, we have a backlog of 65 movies and shows selected on our netflix

Sometimes I will rent a redbox movie when they send me a coupon so that costs 25 -> 50 cents per movie and I get it at the grocery store, so I pick up milk/ice-cream etc on the same trip.

We did finally upgrade our internet to 35 speed, and it's plenty fast. Used to have DSL which was 1.5

 

[Dawg52]

I enjoy sports channels so it is tough to completely get a way from cable type services. I have PS Vue as it gives me what I want at a good price. I was able to talk Comcast in to another promotion at just $20/mo but it's only for a year. At some point my monthly internet cost will be high unless 5G options and others comes to my area. Right now Comcast is my only internet option.

 

[Just_Steve]

The only thing I can get over the air is WTBY "Hellfire and Brimstone". So cable it is.

 

[jjquantz]

I don't know about other people, but I cut the cable a couple of years ago because TV has nothing to offer me any more.

I'm just not interested.

Higher quality news and/or fewer ads would get me back, but that doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

+2 Sunset beat me to it.

 

[Cobra9777]

Regarding internet-only pricing, yes, it is intentionally high to discourage people from dropping their bundled TV and phone service. But there are options. We have 2 decent broadband ISPs, Frontier FiOS and Charter/Spectrum cable. You can periodically alternate between the two and always get the lower new-customer pricing. With FiOS, we also discovered that internet + broadcast tier TV is cheaper than internet alone because of the double-play discount. This also saved me the hassle and expense of putting an antenna on the roof because we are 35-40 miles from the broadcast towers.

Longer term, I think wireless technology may advance to the point that wireline ISPs are obsolete, or at least wireline all the way to each home. If you think about it, most of us pay for two ISPs, wireline to the home and wireless for our mobile devices. Ideally, we would have one wireless ISP for home and mobile. That may still be 10+ years off, but I think it is inevitable just based on the rate of improvement we've seen in wireless up to this point. Then again, if our consumption of broadband capacity continues to increase at recent rates, it may be difficult for wireless to match that rate plus close the gap to wireline.

 

[Car-Guy]

Higher quality news and/or fewer ads would get me back, but that doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

Higher quality news .

How about any "quality" non bias news. I'd buy that no matter if it was delivered by cable, streaming, satellite, OTA or any other media. Ain't going to happen anytime soon.

 

[Nightcap]

Unless you live in the Big City, chances are you have only one choice for Internet service: your friendly cable monopoly. Here on the sand bar, there's Comcast, full stop. There's a fiber backbone that runs about a mile away from my condo, but ne'er the twain shall meet. Even if they offered residential service (they promise it someday maybe), there's no way to get it into my development without hideous expense that the unit owners will never countenance.

 

[Car-Guy]

Unless you live in the Big City, chances are you have only one choice for Internet service: your friendly cable monopoly. Here on the sand bar, there's Comcast, full stop. There's a fiber backbone that runs about a mile away from my condo, but ne'er the twain shall meet. Even if they offered residential service (they promise it someday maybe), there's no way to get it into my development without hideous expense that the unit owners will never countenance.

No cable available out here. No cell service either so it's either DSL for Internet access (and lucky to get that) or satellite. I have 3meg DSL and but I am lucky to get 1meg most of the time. So that pretty much eliminates streaming services too unless you want to wait and wait and wait for the buffers to fill.

Small price to pay for living in the country.

 

[Sojourner]

Regarding internet-only pricing, yes, it is intentionally high to discourage people from dropping their bundled TV and phone service. But there are options. We have 2 decent broadband ISPs, Frontier FiOS and Charter/Spectrum cable. You can periodically alternate between the two and always get the lower new-customer pricing.

+1

In my neighborhood, there are two primary HSI providers -- AT&T and Charter -- and I've found their pricing to be fairly reasonable. Right now I'm getting 22mbps via AT&T U-verse for $42/month (including taxes and fees), and because I'm also a DirecTV customer they are giving me an additional $20/month credit, bringing my total for HSI to $22/month. Not bad. Of course, I had to ask for that by calling up DirecTV a few months ago and negotiating pretty hard, but that's a pretty small price to pay for $240/year in savings. Plus, they gave me a $50 one-time credit and some other small discounts. This is how the game is played these days. Whether it's HSI or cable/satellite TV or home/auto insurance or other expensive monthly services with multiple competing providers (like natural gas here in Georgia) , if you don't periodically call up and threaten to cancel due to excessively high pricing, you'll end up paying hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars more than necessary over the years.

 

[MissMolly]

We dropped cable and our land line in January of this year. We went from $180 bill to $70. They also tried to tell me it would cost more. Um no. $70 is much less than $180. And even if internet cost would go down if I bundled with cable, why pay $20 a month more for something I don't need? I couldn't be more pleased with my antenna and my Rokus.

 

[TrophyWife]

Just found this internet service. It's considerably cheaper and portable. I'm considering jumping in!

 

[Midpack]

Just found this internet service. It's considerably cheaper and portable. I'm considering jumping in!

Since this is a thread about streaming TV, that's probably not fast enough for streaming TV, and certainly not for streaming to several devices simultaneously (as many couples/families do). IIRC most of the streaming TV providers won't work with 3G or 4G anyway regardless of speed.

 

[MooreBonds]

Longer term, I think wireless technology may advance to the point that wireline ISPs are obsolete, or at least wireline all the way to each home. If you think about it, most of us pay for two ISPs, wireline to the home and wireless for our mobile devices. Ideally, we would have one wireless ISP for home and mobile. That may still be 10+ years off, but I think it is inevitable just based on the rate of improvement we've seen in wireless up to this point. Then again, if our consumption of broadband capacity continues to increase at recent rates, it may be difficult for wireless to match that rate plus close the gap to wireline.

There are some substantial issues to overcome with wireless, regarding strength of signal and visual path to the tower, which would require substantially more towers to solve - for each provider. And for each person to verify they can get the service in their home (not to mention some spots in one's home can be spotty). With cell phone towers mostly handling phone calls and some data up to now, it'll be a bit more advancing to be able to truly handle all of the data through-put to be a primary ISP for multiple residences and business - along with the issue of a good signal to all homes.

Sure would suck if land-based lines went away, and you were one of the 5%-10% of homes that had various spotty signals.

 

[easysurfer]

I cut the cord several years back but keep an eye on my streaming to not go subscribing and driving the net cost more than just having cable.

My guilty pleasure for streaming is baseball playoffs. Other than that, pretty much included prime or credited movies.

 

[REWahoo]

Since this is a thread about streaming TV, that's probably not fast enough for streaming TV, and certainly not for streaming to several devices simultaneously (as many couples/families do). IIRC most of the streaming TV providers won't work with 3G or 4G anyway regardless of speed.

I've been doing some research on the linked provider and I'm seeing multiple reports on the Howard forums of people streaming with no problem - download speeds of 12MB or more. Some are reporting speeds considerably faster while others say the download speeds vary based on the time of day and are unhappy with the service.

It appears to be a mixed bag on speed/reliability. The best results are reported by individuals living outside urban areas within a reasonable distance of a cell tower. Those two factors appear to be key: the strength of the tower signal (related to your distance from the tower) and congestion (how many people are using the tower). I'm located in a semi-rural area, less than two miles from a tower so I'm cautiously optimistic I can stream with it but only time will tell. I should get the device next week and as I said here, I'll report on my experience with it.

 

[Marita40]

I'm part of that statistic. I dropped cable in February, bought a cheap antenna from Target, and get 43 crystal clear stations. Then I stopped watching TV completely for the 40 days of Lent. It turned out to be no sacrifice at all, and I found quite delightfully that I altogether dislike TV. I now read in the evenings far more than I used to. I'm even thinking of getting rid of the TV itself. It would free up an area of the den that could accommodate a comfy reading chair and lamp.
I've been increasingly mindful of my habits and watching mindless TV was a stupid one. I now need to start to curb mindless web surfing...that's tough!