According to a new study, subscriptions to streaming TV services exploded by 450 percent in less than a decade. This has resulted in surge of cord-cutting, those who cancel their cable or satellite packages (pay TV). The result is that pay TV household penetration has collapsed from a years-long hold of 75 percent, to just 63 percent in 2017.

In 2009, only 10 percent of homes subscribed to a streaming TV service (Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, etc.). By 2017, that number surged to 55 percent, or a 450 percent increase.

With the much cheaper (and commercial-free) option of streaming, this is having a devastating effect on the pay TV service. And this is very good news.

Much of the power and influence of the far-left entertainment and media industry comes from pay TV and has nothing to do with merit, popularity, or value.

The reason your cable bill is $100 a month is because left-wing outlets like ESPN, CNN, MTV, and the like, make money off of your cable bill even if you never watch all the toxic programming each produces to destroy everything you believe in. If CNN is on your cable package, you are funding CNN. Same with a bunch of others.

This is how CNN stays afloat. If CNN was forced to survive only on merit (i.e. advertising revenue based on viewers), the anti-Trump channel would be out of business in a year.

So the cable and satellite TV system has been rigged to ensure that ratings and viewership do not matter. Which means that every canceled pay TV package is a paper cut to the left’s golden goose.

My wife and I cut our $140 a month cable cord almost exactly two years ago. Best decision we ever made. We are no longer funding our own destruction, that toxic sludge is not allowed into our home, and those 20 minutes of commercials every hour are not missed at all. There is nothing we miss about cable TV. Quite the contrary. All the news we want is online, all the entertainment we want is much cheaper (and commercial-free) through a streaming service.

For $25 a month, we have access to more TV than we could possibly want to watch through Netflix, Amazon, and a British service. Our Roku player is our new cable box, and it offers hundreds of completely free options for TV and movie watching with limited commercials.

We also hooked up a simple antenna to pick up over-the-air networks. If you live in a city, you will be amazed at what is available for free with the simple installation of a $30 digital antenna.

Sure, the left makes money from streaming channels like Netflix, but at least that is a merit-based system.

What you do need to watch out for are con jobs like Sling TV that have merely shifted the rigged concept of pay TV to streaming — that once again have you funding your own destruction under the phony advertising of a la carte.

If you want to kill CNN and ESPN, you have to cut the cord.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.