"...and lucky you -- you're now losing this content yet still paying more for cable TV than ever before."
Not me. Ha ha!
In the eternal words of Homer Simpson: "Nothing a month? Yeah, I think we can swing that." Quote is from one of my favorite Simpsons episodes, entitled: "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment"
However I'm not stealing cable, although I could easily, as I have a key to the interface box on the side of the apartment building. However, I have to ask. How do you steal something that is mostly garbage? Quality of the majority of content, in my opinion, has been going downhill for some time now. Length of commercials per hour of TV has been steadily increasing. Between quality and cost, I would like to think, many people are approaching the point of not seeing value in what they pay for TV service. I cut the cord mid 2011 and haven't looked back. I decided to put an antenna on the roof of the apartment building I live in, and use a secondary computer to record the 2 shows I do care about.
The current pay-TV model is a dead man walking. I would go as far to say within 10 years, (if not sooner) the business model of paying for a group of channels will be dead and gone. Unfortunately the owners of pay-TV services, cable networks, and OTA stations to a lesser extent, are either oblivious, or naive to this fact. Either that, or they are going to try to prop up a 1980's-90's business model that people are already tired of, and have started to reject outright. (Cord Cutting) The music business tried tried to prop up their (at the time) failing business model circa 1999-2000. It took them nearly 20 years to start to warm to technology as a distribution method, however the damage has been done to the major labels. This is one of the reasons piracy is so alluring. No cost. No BS. Get what you want, pretty much when you want.
I remember talking about this while on a conference call with higher management, when I was employed with Dish Network in 2010. At that point, I had been an employee for 7 years. Making these comments about pay-TV in general landed me in serious hot water with the company. For whatever reason, management was not too thrilled that I was speaking about how their business is going to end. We have to face facts however. The internet in general, as content delivery, is going to decimate the pay-TV industry business, whether it is cable, or satellite, as we know it now. It has already started. It's been this way for a couple years now. Its just a matter of time. As internet access, and technology improves, the rate of cord cutting will accelerate exponentially. Case in point: 15-17 years ago, up to as recently as 10 years ago, most of us still had a landline phone, paid for a long distance carrier, and on occasion, made 'collect' long distance phone calls. Hell, I feel old just typing that out. Can you remember the last time you made a 'collect' or long distance call? Technology has pretty much killed the landline phone business. Currently in 2017, according to CDC (Why they are tracking cell phone usage, I will never understand) less than 35% of Americans, have a landline based phone.
Personally, I think in the not too distant future, 'Pay-TV companies' will no longer install cable or satellite boxes, as we know them now. They will start installing internet capable devices, like a small computer and/or DVR, to your TV. People will then download programming of their choice, and will be charged for the programming that was downloaded. As a matter of fact, I just read a story on Drudge, on how the movie business wants to offer first run movies that are still in the theater, for viewing at home for $30-$50.
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