Nielsen Almost Acknowledges Cord Cutting Is Real 23% Spike in OTA and Broadband Only Subscribers Tipped by cvv01 
Back in June of 2010, Nielsen proclaimed that the idea of TV cord cutting in favor of Internet video alternatives was "purely fiction." A year and a half later and the company's latest report (reg. required) almost goes out of its way not to acknowledge cord cutting exists, despite finding that homes with broadband but without paid TV are on the rise. The percentage of people who have just OTA and broadband rose 22.8% since last year, and while they still comprise just 5% of all TV households, it's a segment that's slowly becoming less "fictional" in the face of relentless cable industry price hikes. As for pay TV options, there continues to be a migration away from traditional cable and toward satellite and telcoTV. The number of homes subscribing to wired cable decreased 4.1 percent in the past year at the same time that telco TV and satellite have seen increases of 21.1 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, more than 75% of TV viewers pay for broadband service up from roughly 71% one year ago. While cord cutters are a very real niche, they do remain a minuscule part of the equation for several reasons. Traditional cable TV is familiar, it's easy, and newer streaming technologies confuse Luddites and the elderly. The cable and TV industry also does a very good job trying to viciously crush any and all disruptive Internet video operations (see their slow but steady licensing strangulation of Netflix as exhibit A). Traditional cable is a massive and established industry, and it's not going anywhere. Between 2008 and 2011, the number of users watching traditional-but-time-shifted (DVRs, Slingboxes) television jumped by 66%, while the growth in those watching TV on the Internet jumped 21.7% in the same period. During that same stretch, mobile video consumption (mostly thanks to TV Everywhere offers that require a paid TV subscription) has exploded to the tune of 205.7%. Broadband bundles continue to grow, with homes with both paid TV and broadband increasing 5-1/2% last year. Just like many blogs, analysts and other similar studies focused on video, Nielsen doesn't discuss piracy's impact on any of these numbers. In fact, Nielsen's eleven page study doesn't mention piracy once. Apparently if you don't mention piracy it ceases to exist, a reflection of the broader cable and broadcast industry belief that their services don't compete with piracy (tip: they do). It seems somewhat important to include those watching pirated content if you're seriously analyzing shifts in video consumption.
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 Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Yea ok Who are these people !? I know a LOT of people , and every single one of them has pay TV.
5% is hard to swallow. I install FiOS every day, and Its an extremely rare occurance I install internet without TV ( franchised areas), far less than 5% of the time. | |
|  |  LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5
1 edit | Re: Yea ok According to this chart, there are approx 5,104,000 households that have broadband only or broadband & OTA TV.
According to Nielsen definition Broadcast Only refers to OTA TV with an antenna. That is no cable, sat, or telco TV. | |
| | slckusrPremium
join:2003-03-17
Maumee, OH
kudos:1 Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| I know 8 people off the top of my head with only internet connections and no pay TV. Im next on that list, I have Dish now, but i havent even watched it in a week. so why pay for it. Besides pc games xbox, movies, internet all keep me busy enough (besides social stuff\work), that finding enough time to keep up with TV is getting hard, its much easier to jump online and queue up my show to watch whenever i have time to watch it. | |
| | |  N3OGHYo Soy Col. "Bat" GuanoPremium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
kudos:1 | Re: Yea ok I have TV service through Fios, and I thought I didn't watch as much TV as I used to as I was working 70+ hour weeks. I got downsized at one of my jobs and all of a sudden I'm working only (only!) 40 hours a week again and guess what? I'm not watching any more TV than I used to. I swap DVD's around with friends and watch movies from my collection. I think I'm gonna ditch it and put up a broadcast HD antenna.
Thank god my TWIC card went through today so I can move on to the next part time job I have lined up. I'm bored to tears over the weekends with no outside work to do!
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Petty people are disproportionally corrupted by petty power | |
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| | | | | I "cut the cord" back in November by dropping Dish Network. Strictly OTA (rooftop antenna) and internet, although about the only streaming video I watch online is Leo Laporte's "TWiT Network". I find more than enough to watch on the local stations.
Got tired of paying $120/month for 300 channels and rarely finding anything worth viewing on any of them! | |
| | | | I've seen some of them. Some are really tech-savvy folks who get their TV online through places like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, some are doing essentially the same thing in order to save money, even though they're generally well-educated, and some just don't care too much about TV. I'm actually considering the same thing and have been thinking about it for a good while now, not because we can't afford it but because I've figured out how much we're paying for TV, and it really adds up to some real money, money I'd like to put toward other things. Also, I grew up in a rural area, and my parents had a big outdoor antenna, and I still managed to always find something to watch. And while I think that broadcast TV has generally turned to shit, there's interesting programming happening on the digital subchannels like ME-TV, Antenna TV, and This, so I can find stuff to watch, plus the Roku has interesting things to watch.
I think that the percentages will likely vary in different areas, so what you or I see individually might not be truly representative of what's happening overall. I'd guess, for example, that some people are dumping pay TV simply because they can't afford it right now, and you'd expect them to come back if and when their finances improve, but, in areas with lots of broadcast TV, especially when you factor in subchannels, the folks who had only been taking basic cable might not come back if they find that what they can get OTA is enough to satisfy them.
I think that cable is in a bad position long-term. They're constantly raising rates, partly on their own and partly due to demands from programmers, just as subs are decreasing. That's a bad policy, IMHO, because, when your product isn't selling well, you need to lower prices, not raise them. Also, it's going to make it harder to get people to reconnect cable later on, since it's one thing to have rates raised on you a little each time, since you mentally get used to those rates creeping up, but if you leave for a while, then look at the rates after a few years, you may get a case of sticker shock. I just don't think the cable execs have quite come to terms with the fact that people are leaving. It may only be a few right now, but their friends and family will get to see what kind of experience they have without pay TV, and, if it's a good one, these folks may also decide to leave. Sports are still a big draw, but sports may end up being its own worst enemy, since, as we know, people who don't watch sports are subsidizing those who do, so, if those who don't care about sports continue to leave, it will make rates increase even faster, especially when you consider that channels like ESPN have signed very expensive long-term contracts with sports leagues, and those have to be paid for somehow, so, as the subscriber base shrinks, the ones who remain will have to absorb more and more of that cost, which could end up creating a death spiral of sorts as more and more people are unable to justify the costs and leave, causing rates to increase at a faster and faster rate, causing even more to leave. | |
| | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Exactly. It's way overblown. Not very many people are actually doing this. | |
| | | | 
You do not know me.
Wait, you are an installation guy? No wonder! You install full package, but after a year or contract renewal is up, cord-cutters dropped the $90/mnth for TV channels that kept shifting, that have more HD of junk channels, and frankly the cost out weighed the quality.
OTA antenna was $50, and I'm inbetween two markets (Philly/NYC).
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Splat | |
| |  djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
kudos:1
 ·VOIPo
 ·Verizon Wireless..
 ·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by ITALIAN926:Who are these people !? I know a LOT of people , and every single one of them has pay TV.
5% is a small number, it seems about right to me. I know one couple that does this. They get OTA reception and use TiVo and Apple TV. They get Netflix discs shipped for everything else. They don't pirate a thing. Both spend more time on the internet than watching TV, and neither is interested in sports. Some people just aren't that into TV, and these alternatives offer pricing that is more in line with their usage of it.
That said, I don't think traditional TV is going anywhere. If people enjoy their TV they will continue to subscribe. As "relentless" as cable hikes are, it's still cheap entertainment, compared to eating out, going to the movies, smoking, going out to bars/drinking, etc.
-- Rob
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.
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| | | LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | Re: Yea ok said by djrobx:
That said, I don't think traditional TV is going anywhere. If people enjoy their TV they will continue to subscribe. As "relentless" as cable hikes are, it's still cheap entertainment, compared to eating out, going to the movies, smoking, going out to bars/drinking, etc.
-- Rob
Yes, 1 night on the town with a date at a nice restaurant and a bottle of half decent wine and a movie or play will cost more than the costliest triple play pkg does for a month.
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The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
»www.politico.com/2012-election/
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| | | |  rit56
join:2000-12-01
New York, NY | Re: Yea ok Tell that to a woman. They like to go out and if you don't take them out to do something nice at least once a month problems arise. Dinner and enjoying good conversation..... it's so....... natural. | |
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| SunnyD
join:2009-03-20
Madison, AL | said by ITALIAN926:Who are these people !? I know a LOT of people , and every single one of them has pay TV.
5% is hard to swallow. I install FiOS every day, and Its an extremely rare occurance I install internet without TV ( franchised areas), far less than 5% of the time.
Of course as an installer you're not going to see these people. New installs are going to get their installs because of the promo BUNDLE rates for the first ~year or so, which means they have to get voice/data/tv in order to get that stellar rate.
It's the EXISTING subs that are going to be cutting the cord, simply because it's impossible to get reasonable a'la carte rates for individual services. | |
| | | | | Re: Yea ok said by SunnyD:said by ITALIAN926:Who are these people !? I know a LOT of people , and every single one of them has pay TV.
5% is hard to swallow. I install FiOS every day, and Its an extremely rare occurance I install internet without TV ( franchised areas), far less than 5% of the time.
Of course as an installer you're not going to see these people. New installs are going to get their installs because of the promo BUNDLE rates for the first ~year or so, which means they have to get voice/data/tv in order to get that stellar rate. It's the EXISTING subs that are going to be cutting the cord, simply because it's impossible to get reasonable a'la carte rates for individual services. I am in a FiOS market. I would love to get a deal like free installation on STAND ALONE FiOS internet and use my own equipment (the router). Yet they keep trying to FORCE a useless unwanted land line on me along with useless commercial INFESTED CRAP they call television on to me. Add in the juicy promotional offers don't show the cost of "box" rentals or more then one TV and i'm sure there are extra fees for HD as well. Instead of giving in to this i keep my ancient DSL over copper instead of drinking the FiOS koolaid which will become capped internet after 1) the sub base becomes pleasing enough to shareholders 2) too much cord cutting threatens their TV business model. I watch TV through netflix and others the day i can't do that no more i will just go without TV altogether as i can't see wasting my time staring at commercials which have become a huge load. | |
| | | | | | Re: Yea ok said by norbert26:said by SunnyD:said by ITALIAN926:Who are these people !? I know a LOT of people , and every single one of them has pay TV.
5% is hard to swallow. I install FiOS every day, and Its an extremely rare occurance I install internet without TV ( franchised areas), far less than 5% of the time.
Of course as an installer you're not going to see these people. New installs are going to get their installs because of the promo BUNDLE rates for the first ~year or so, which means they have to get voice/data/tv in order to get that stellar rate. It's the EXISTING subs that are going to be cutting the cord, simply because it's impossible to get reasonable a'la carte rates for individual services. I am in a FiOS market. I would love to get a deal like free installation on STAND ALONE FiOS internet and use my own equipment (the router). Yet they keep trying to FORCE a useless unwanted land line on me along with useless commercial INFESTED CRAP they call television on to me. Add in the juicy promotional offers don't show the cost of "box" rentals or more then one TV and i'm sure there are extra fees for HD as well. Instead of giving in to this i keep my ancient DSL over copper instead of drinking the FiOS koolaid which will become capped internet after 1) the sub base becomes pleasing enough to shareholders 2) too much cord cutting threatens their TV business model. I watch TV through netflix and others the day i can't do that no more i will just go without TV altogether as i can't see wasting my time staring at commercials which have become a huge load. The internet is also has useless commercial infested crap. Actually it has a lot more and you encounter it more per minute than on TV.
Most web video also has useless commercial infested crap.
DNS servers bring you to useless commercial infested crap.
so...... Why are you still paying for and using the internet. Please cut the internet cord. | |
| | | | |  The GooberLate to the partyPremium
join:2001-01-11
Mercer, PA | Re: Yea ok *cough* Adblock Plus *cough* | |
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|  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | I'm one of them. I have OTA Antenna and Broadband and a Netflix subscription. No Cable TV, no Dish.
I'm perfectly content with it as well.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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| | | | | Re: Yea ok Its called "Rerun-flix".
Most people I know had Netflix and then after 2-6 months dropped it. One person still has it. I used the free trial for 1 month, and didn't use it again. I think I will just try to exploit the trials from now on. | |
| | | | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: Yea ok Everytime I open Netflix up there's new shows and movies I want to see. I particularly enjoy the documentaries and historical shows, stuff you can't find at the store or at any rental kiosk.
I consider Netflix to be awesome entertainment value.
I'm nowhere close to "not being able to find something to watch."
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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| jdir
join:2001-05-04
Santa Clara, CA | I for one still does not have cable tv. For the price of cable TV, I can get blue-ray disc or DVDs - better sound, better picture and I get to keep the video and play them back at my convenient.
What is on cable TV? | |
| | | | Who are these people? Seriously? What are you age 50+?
Myself and everyone I know younger than... say 35 has cut cable in the last 5 years. Why on eath would I pay for cable when I can see the only shows I care about online on perfectly legal streaming sites and things like Netflix that cost less than cable by a large margin?
Why put up with obnoxious cable issues like twice as loud commercials, or huge amounts of commercials in general. I haven't watched a commercial in years now but I still watch the same shows. Anyone using cable TV these days is just sad. | |
| | | Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| Re: Yea ok Thats an exxageration, and u know it. The Nielson numbers state 5%, which i think is an exxageration, and you say EVERYONE you know under 35 has cut cable. Im 34 if you have to know, I have 3 younger brothers, my friends, THEIR FRIENDS, all have cable in some flavor.
I Love when these topics come up, everyone who has cut cable jump into the conversation. Imagine if the other 95% who HAS cable jumped into the thread, it would be 100 pages long. | |
| | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Re: Yea ok Just about everyone I know has cable in some form. You just can't get everything online.
What is dead is the land-line. No one is know is activating landlines anymore, they just use their cell phones. | |
| | | | | The GooberLate to the partyPremium
join:2001-01-11
Mercer, PA Reviews:
 ·Verizon Online DSL
·Cricket Broadband
| Re: Yea ok It all depends on your area too. I live close enough to Pittsburgh that I can get significant OTA programming. Head down to my mom's house and she gets 1 station OTA.
Tack in the cost of an antenna, the hassle of setting it up, a DTV converter box in some cases, possibly a rotor, roof mounting, running coax... It's far easier for most people to just get cable and be done with it.
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Fight Cancer! Join DSLR's Team Discovery | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·Hargray Cable
| said by BiggA:Just about everyone I know has cable in some form. You just can't get everything online.
What is dead is the land-line. No one is know is activating landlines anymore, they just use their cell phones.
I didn't have a cell phone until about 6 months ago and what pushed me over the edge was unlimited long distance, LOL. I went into my phone company and asked about unlimited long distance which every now gets on their land line with the lady saying it would be $6 more a month. I asked more than once if anything else would change driving up my bill,"No just $6 a month more". Well next bill was $18 more so I said F' off and I went out to buy a tracfone. $160 for a year of service, 2000 minutes and a flip phone, good enough for me. BTW my land line was 40 a month so 480 a year why not just get a cell phone??? | |
| | | | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Re: Yea ok Well, you're not typical of normal users. My earlier one was supposed to say no one is activating new landlines.
The long-distance bleed has been going on for a while, now Skype and other stuff is there too. | |
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| | | | | Not an exxageration (sic) at all. Burty your head in the sand all you want. Frankly, I don't understand how anybody still puts up with cable in the first place. Ever increasing prices, commercials keep getting louder, programming becomes more and more vapid... | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·Air Advantage
 ·HughesNet Satell..
| Re: Yea ok said by jeffreydean1:Not an exxageration (sic) at all. Burty your head in the sand all you want. Frankly, I don't understand how anybody still puts up with cable in the first place. Ever increasing prices, commercials keep getting louder, programming becomes more and more vapid...
yes it's an exaggeration and you know it. i don't know anyone that has cut the cord yet. but i suppose it could vary depending on if you live in the big city or not where they have good internet options
I couldn't cut the cord even if wanted too because of lack of internet options unless i didn't want to watch anything
my 1mb WISP connection just doesn't cut it for heavy streaming | |
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| | | | said by jeffreydean1:Who are these people? Seriously? What are you age 50+?
Myself and everyone I know younger than... say 35 has cut cable in the last 5 years. Why on eath would I pay for cable when I can see the only shows I care about online on perfectly legal streaming sites and things like Netflix that cost less than cable by a large margin?
Why put up with obnoxious cable issues like twice as loud commercials, or huge amounts of commercials in general. I haven't watched a commercial in years now but I still watch the same shows. Anyone using cable TV these days is just sad.
What do you do for sports ?! Or you just don't watch sports ?!
What about documentaries ?
What about Dexter, Spartacus, The Walking Dead, Madmen, Family Guy ?
That is just some of the shows I dvr.
Let me guess, you guys torrent shows ? Am I right ?
Do you have any visual fun, stimulation ?
You can make those excuses about your friends. Hope fully they are all guys, because the only other place you can go to watch stuff you like is a bar or a strip club.
In any event; You say all of this about your friends. The funny thing is, you and your companions are all paying a large cash fee for cell and 3g/4g data services every month, right.....
I assume some of your friends have a family, so they have the telco family plan = 110+ per month.
There is your "new cable bill" my friend.
All you did was come to a trade-off. Nothing has changed. | |
| | | | Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| Re: Yea ok Yea, I just dont get it. Walking Dead starts again tonight, right? The few people out there that has actually cut the cord, always flock to these threads to make it seem like its the next coolest thing to do. Im in NY and a huge Yankee fan, the YES channel alone would keep me paying for cable.
This website , and these video streaming fans (mostly *cough copyright infringers) , want all the providers to just become dumb pipes, for some odd reason. What they dont understand is, if their dream came true, internet price would simply increase 3X's as much across the board. The companies will always get the cash they need to function and profit.
Stream my video? Are you insane? I didnt buy my 55" and 60" to watch compressed crap video.
For almost a decade, the telephone companies has been bleeding landlines. They still to this day have millions upon millions of landlines in this country. THAT situation is nothing compared to the video situation. Pay TV is here, and will remain here probably for the rest of our lives. | |
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| Reviews:
·Hargray Cable
| said by ITALIAN926:Who are these people !? I know a LOT of people , and every single one of them has pay TV.
5% is hard to swallow. I install FiOS every day, and Its an extremely rare occurance I install internet without TV ( franchised areas), far less than 5% of the time.
I am one of those people, scrapped my cable last year. OTA, NetFlix and internet TV for me. Only problem I have is some of the kids programing, the kids want to be current with their Disney shows. | |
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| | Them younglings Darn young people and the Internet. How come they don't get their information and entertainment only from the TV just like everyone used to do? | |
| | LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | Re: Them younglings said by HaloFans:Darn young people and the Internet. How come they don't get their information and entertainment only from the TV just like everyone used to do?
Even the youngsters watch VERY little video on internet. It is still heavily dominated by cable/sat/telco pay TV. Even 18 to 24 yr olds only watch on average 53 mins/week(legal or pirated) of video on the internet, while watching over 24 hrs(live or DVR) of TV a week on pay TV.
usage by week hrs and mins
If you don't want to register at Nielsen, here is the full report:
 Nielsen-Cros···2011.pdf 1813929 bytes
--
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
»www.politico.com/2012-election/
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| | |  aaronwtPremium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FiOS
| Re: Them younglings That seems like a very low number of hours for time shifted TV. I started time shifting my TV watching 1984 and then in 2001 started time shifting digitally with HD from HTPCs and SD from TiVos.
I don't watch anything that isn't time shifted. At the very least I'm 15 to 20 minutes behind live TV. | |
| | |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | I have a 16 year old that almost never watches TV. 24 hours a week? Maybe 24 hours a year. Lots of his classmates also watch very little TV. They just have other things to do. | |
| | | | | And how exactly are Nielsen measuring how much video people watch on the Internet (pirated or not, as you say)
Of course those numbers are low because they have no metric for measuring them. You really think that teens today watch less than an hour of video on the web a week? What planet do you live on? | |
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| | Competing with piracy Can't compete with free, especially since nothing really concrete is being done about the problem. | |
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See 8 replies to this post | |
 djpcrazeAs heard on 101.5 JamzPremium
join:2003-12-29
Chandler, AZ | Been doing this for years now... Sounds like my household to a tee! When I bought my house I installed a whole house antenna and put OTA tv in each room via converter boxes on our old TVs or right into our new sets. We've also got Rokus in our bedroom and my son's room... And a HTPC running GB-PVR in the living room. Haven't felt the need to even consider looking back. I pay Cox 32.95 a month for Internet and my $8 a month for Netflix... and that's IT.
We get about 40 atsc channels off air here in Phoenix, so my wife is always happy... All of her daytime shows are still availible. Most series we've had an interest in watching end up on Netflix soon enough anyway.
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»www.1015jamz.com/ | |
|  baineschile2600 ways to livePremium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI
·Comcast
| Sports I think, for a long while at least, that sports will play a huge factor. Since ESPN is the most expensive channel to carrier operators, I assume they will buy up more and more events (that arent broadcasted locally).
Remember, the NFL is a business. When the day comes they will make more money from a deal with ESPN than with CBS/FOX/NBC, they will jump on it. We will see if there is a business model out there where ESPN can keep up the same revenue stream WITHOUT cable. | |
|  IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| Can't live without my cable I grew up without cable until the year 2000 (when I was 17). With all the programming offered by cable, I would never go back to OTA. With the recession, the cable companies are offering some sweet deals on their triple play bundles.
In my area (Springfield, MA), the OTA reception is very poor and cable or satellite is pretty much mandatory if you want TV. I think it's because of the urban nature of our area and there is too much interference. Also the DTV transition weakened signals as my mother's cousin in Northampton lost OTA reception when the analog broadcasts were lost.
I currently the HD preferred triple play that is about $200 per month ($40 of that is for the extreme 50 hsi upgrade).
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All of my CPE (including my EMTA) is customer owned. The only Comcast owned equipment in my house is the CableCards in the two TiVO boxes I own. | |
|  DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2
·Covad Communicat..
·Verizon Online DSL
| I am a Cord Cutter I dumped Comcast in 2009 and don't regret it one bit. I have better things to do with the $135/mo they jacked me up to for their "Digital Gold + HBO & Showtime" and refused to budge on letting me change to the same package plus phone & Internet for $99.95 "because your account is from 1993 before we acquired your market and there is absolutely no way we can modify it." What kind of BS is that? They couldn't even get the cancellation to go through! I was still being billed 6 months later and finally sent to collection because I refused to continue paying while they figured it out. F* them.
I'm doing quite well with OTA and Verizon's old copper phone and DSL. Yeah, I do miss seeing some shows on cable when they first air but I make due with catching up online. 7-15mbps DSL isn't breaking any speed records but online video works well, and the service is generally stable and isn't capped. I may take FiOS TV when it finally gets to my address...then again, that won't be for at least another 2 years so who knows?
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"Dance like the photo isn't being tagged; love like you've never been unfriended; and tweet like nobody is following." | |
|  elios
join:2005-11-15
Springfield, MO | Basic only we only have Basic Cable because its the same price as getting cable internet with OUT TV
until shady stuff like that end you wont see huge number of people dumping pay TV | |
| | BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | numbers are funny If cord cutting goes from 4% to 5% of the popluation that doesn't sound like a lot but when you say cord cutting increased 25% it does. Percentage increase really means nothing when the total amount is so small. | |
| | | I'm not in the US, but I still get satellite TV I'm not in the US, but I still get satellite TV -- but just the basic package for about $9 USD a month. I don't watch it much, but my wife likes it because the picture is better than using the antenna for the local channels.
And for $9 USD a month, it's not a bad deal. It has 21 channels including CNN Asia and HBO Asia. And I've got 3 receivers connected for no extra charge.
But if I was in the US with really expensive cable or satellite bills, I think dropping that would make a lot of sense. | |
| Reviews:
·ooma
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FiOS
| $$ Well, gasoline prices are on the rise again.. guess what's discretionary? Cable-tv, that's right! The month gasoline prices go above $4 a gallon I'm on the phone to my provider and I'm gonna cut the cable-tv out of my life. You'd be surprised how much cable-tv content bleeds on the internet that can sastify that craving anyway. Would be nice if the greedy oil companies & gasoline stations would be nicer & wait until July to get to $4 a gallon, but you know that won't happen-- it's about $3.90 already in February!
$6 for set-top rental. Another $3-5 in franchise taxes & fees. Plus a new 8 cent FEDERAL fee for cable-tv surcharge for Verizon FIOS customers. WATCH how many triple play customers swing down to dual play or single play (JUST INTERNET) cutting the CATV part of the cord. BTW, it's not about the 150+Million subscribers to cable-tv.. it's the trend.. and that's going to swing down particularly hard in the middle of the year-- enough for the service providers to take notice and cut rates to lure you back! | |
| | | Really? Who still has cable? Out of the 8 families or so that I am relatively close with here in Ontario, only 1 of them still has cable, and it's the basic cheap one and they're considering cutting.
Why would anyone still pay for cable in this day and age? Do you also have a landline and get all of your information from newspapers a day after everyone else hears about it? | |
| | Reviews:
·Air Advantage
·HughesNet Satell..
| Re: Really? Who still has cable? said by jeffreydean1:Out of the 8 families or so that I am relatively close with here in Ontario, only 1 of them still has cable, and it's the basic cheap one and they're considering cutting.
Why would anyone still pay for cable in this day and age? Do you also have a landline and get all of your information from newspapers a day after everyone else hears about it?
stop trolling. you know full well that not everyone has internet available to them to stream video | |
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| | It probably depends on where you live.... Where I live, the quality of OTA signals is awful. You need a pay service just to watch TV.
If I lived in a bigger city with decent OTA options, I'd probably get an antenna and cut the cable bill. | |
| | | | Re: It probably depends on where you live.... You can stream the 4-5 major networks on the internet.. while they might not be your local affiliate you can see 90% of the programming. | |
| | Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | There are those trying to make the quality of OTA much worse in many parts of the U.S. with their proposals to take away channels 31-51. Channels 52 and above are already gone. Where I live only 5 (the most powerful) of the 9 local stations can be received with an antenna and that includes 4 with actual frequencies (not virtual channel numbers) above channel 30. In fact 6 of the 9 high power local stations including 3 of the 4 major U.S. networks are up there above channel 30. Because of the number of adjacent market stations that are within interfering but not reception distance there is really no lower channels for them to go to unless their power is greatly reduced. | |
| | | Reviews:
·Air Advantage
·HughesNet Satell..
| Re: It probably depends on where you live.... said by Sammer:There are those trying to make the quality of OTA much worse in many parts of the U.S. with their proposals to take away channels 31-51. Channels 52 and above are already gone.
i have channel 62 cbs and it comes in perfectly. where i live i can get all the major networks perfectly and i live close enough to canada hat i pick up a few of their stations as well. canada btw has also switched to Digital | |
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| | I've said is 'afore, and I'll say it again... when ESPN... ... over the 'net is dependable, my cord (or rather, dish subscription), it is cut.
ESPN3 kind of sucks right now... not dependable, quality varies from minute to minute. Once that gets fixed, sayonara, pay TV. | |
| ShisH
join:2007-05-21
Birmingham, AL | Screw cable and commercials I haven't had cable going on 8 years and I work in the media industry. I don't care for sports and Netflix covers any movie or tv show I care to watch. Any that Netflix doesn't have available, I look to retail places and just purchase the box set...unless it's HBO. I will NEVER purchase an HBO dvd of any kind due to their 10 minute long advertising/commercial spot they put at the beginning of all their dvds. | |
| | | Choices Fact is Cable TV is here to stay. Either you want it or you don't. See where I live (USA) I can choose. If I want to pay for the fancy bread I do. If I want a Porsche guess what I can go buy one. If I want a Volkswagen then I can get that too.
Look people the Cable company, Sattelite, Netflix whatever you use is a business and with business you are there to make money. Just like it if were my business I want to make money!!! I have a product and supply it and make a profit, have a IPO etc..... It is called a business it is not a chartiy out to save you money cause you say so. Do you want the government to take it over and subsidize it? So everyone can have it for cheap like health insurance or something? NO!!!
Either you buy it or you don't your choice. I don't care if you want to struggle with trying to watch this show or that show or find this show or program or another one online cause someone said it was cool. If that is what you want then go ahead knock yourself out. I will pickup my remote control and watch what I want and pay for it if that is what I want to do. And just because I want to does not make me some poor sap that does not know any better. It means I have a choice and I am glad I do!!! | |
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I am a cord cutter from a long time ago