A Record 1.2 Million Viewers Cut the TV Cord Last Quarter The cord cutting phenomenon cable industry executives continue to either deny or downplay continues to break records. The latest analysis by Kagan indicates that another 1.2 million Americans cut the TV cord last quarter, lured away from expensive, bloated traditional cable TV bundles by the rising availability of cheaper, more flexible streaming alternatives. The losses once again broke records for the industry, contributing to a net loss of 2.9 million traditional pay TV subscribers so far this year.

Kagan notes that satellite TV providers continue to be hit the hardest, losing 618,000 subscribers during the period -- or 53% of the quarter's losses. Traditional cable companies did notably better, losing just 367,000 video customers in the quarter. Companies like Comcast and Charter are a bit more insulated from cord cutting because they enjoy a growing monopoly over broadband as telcos refuse to upgrade aging DSL lines at scale. As a result, customers fleeing DSL for faster cable speeds often sign up (at least temporarily) for cable TV, since buying bundles is usually cheaper than buying broadband alone. Of course that doesn't mean cord cutting isn't hurting cable providers, since many of these users may not even be watching the cable service they signed up for. And Kagan notes that cable providers still lost 801,000 traditional cable customers during the first nine months of the year. At the same time, none of this means the cable industry is on the cusp of collapse, just evolution. Traditional cable operators still collectively lay claim to 91.7 million subscribers, and at some point they'll realize that competing with these over the top options is best achieved by doing the unthinkable: lowering their prices. At the same time, none of this means the cable industry is on the cusp of collapse, just evolution. Traditional cable operators still collectively lay claim to 91.7 million subscribers, and at some point they'll realize that competing with these over the top options is best achieved by doing the unthinkable: lowering their prices.







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Most recommended from 106 comments

sokhapkin

Premium Member

join:2003-05-08

North Fort Myers, FL 24 recommendations sokhapkin Premium Member Who needs TV? I cut TV cord in 2003 or 2005. There is nothing to watch on 200+ channels of crap...

YukonHawk

join:2001-01-07

Patterson, NY 222.9 10.7

15 recommendations YukonHawk Member HA!



After I read that line I nearly peed my pants dying of laughter!!!! Lowering prices?????? Not in my lifetime. "Traditional cable operators still collectively lay claim to 91.7 million subscribers, and at some point they'll realize that competing with these over the top options is best achieved by doing the unthinkable: lowering their prices".After I read that line I nearly peed my pants dying of laughter!!!! Lowering prices?????? Not in my lifetime. sestrada

Premium Member

join:2012-11-05

U.S.A. ·Charter

10 recommendations sestrada Premium Member I reluctantly went back to an antenna Not all of us cut the cord because we think cable tvc has no value



Triple play bundling from the local cableco was great, and I loved adding apple tv and netflix for a wider choice



A win win for everyone



Then Charter bought the cable company and jacked up the price for tv so much that I decided to cancel it



Thanks to no competition, its either them or nobody



It's only a matter of time the stream only crowd is paying double for internet because everything is metered and the caps adjusted to milk us dry



It's a step backwards, but a OTA antenna is the way to go in our uncompetitive country wvcaver

Premium Member

join:2005-04-17

Millersburg, OH 10 recommendations wvcaver Premium Member no more DSL I just finally got rid of DSL 10M/896K as of the 11-14 and went to cable 120M/12M and so far love it should of done it sooner Tony0945

join:2015-03-26

Streamwood, IL 6 recommendations Tony0945 Member WOW claims Sports is driving the cost I don't watch sports - ever. So I cut the cord and installed a Leaf antenna. Recently discovered Sling TV. I'm thinking of taking their seven day free trial. The Orange package at $20 covers what I actually watched on cable. And I love "no contracts" and "no junk fees". stephend2

join:2012-11-22

Belzoni, MS 5 recommendations stephend2 Member Small cable TV operator's perspective...



Broadcast station re-transmission consent is really going to hurt us for 2018. Every broadcaster has demanded 300-400% increases with very little room to negotiate. This puts us in a bad position of raising our price $20/month starting Jan. 1... I'll say that where we are, there is no room for us to absorb an increase. We make the bare minimum on TV that we need to stay in business and move forward, all the while trying to drive broadband adoption. What we are not doing is gouging on broadband to make up for TV. We are also maintaining 60% of our market with TV service and over 75% with at least one service from us.



Our expanded lineup is $65 now, out the door, going to $85 in January. The same lineup is significantly more expensive on any other provider that I've checked. We charge $40 for 25mbps internet regardless if you have our TV service or not. We do have a triple play bundle discount and we are launching a "everything bundle" in Jan. that is expanded + all premiums, 100m internet, phone service for $199 out the door. We've already had a bit of interest in that. We are also launching digital service by Jan 1. Even as an analog system with a small digital selection in the clear with no set tops, we've held onto our market. We aren't rolling out the latest and greatest, and I believe the consumers don't necessarily care that you have the latest whole home DVR setup($$$) as long as they can get what they want. Oh, our $85/month expanded service includes 4 HD set tops no extra charge. DVR is $5/month, that's mainly driven by the more expensive hardware and additional software licensing costs. It's not about extorting every dollar we can, it's offering a fair service for a fair price and remaining in business.



I've personally built out my digital headend out of second hand parts and creativity for less than $20k. The most expensive parts of it all is the hardware to transcode mpeg4 to mpeg2, as we're using older set tops that only decode mpeg2 and have some networks that only send us a mpeg4 feed, I think it was 5 channels I had to transcode. I asked for quotes to do a modern digital headend from well known integrators. Their way was at best $500k.



I have flexibility being an independent operator that the big corporate guys don't. At the end of the day, it's about what our customers want and delivering that to them for a fair price. There is room to cut the fat and lower the price on cable TV. I'm confident that the biggest operators are paying much less than I am for programming just due to their size. I handle most of my own negotiations, and I'm just some guy in rural Mississippi...



There's constant cable bashing here..and I suppose its warranted overall...I'm not sure how many other independents are even out there that are doing anything other than dying.



Have a look at what we are doing.. » The state of the industry puts me in a bit of a difficult position. On one hand, I personally watch a lot of streaming content and very little of my own cable service... But we have built a successful business and have maintained and even gained linear TV subscribers during all this "cord cutting". We are working on positioning to be a broadband provider, possibly even dropping TV completely within 3-5 years if things continue as they are.Broadcast station re-transmission consent is really going to hurt us for 2018. Every broadcaster has demanded 300-400% increases with very little room to negotiate. This puts us in a bad position of raising our price $20/month starting Jan. 1... I'll say that where we are, there is no room for us to absorb an increase. We make the bare minimum on TV that we need to stay in business and move forward, all the while trying to drive broadband adoption. What we are not doing is gouging on broadband to make up for TV. We are also maintaining 60% of our market with TV service and over 75% with at least one service from us.Our expanded lineup is $65 now, out the door, going to $85 in January. The same lineup is significantly more expensive on any other provider that I've checked. We charge $40 for 25mbps internet regardless if you have our TV service or not. We do have a triple play bundle discount and we are launching a "everything bundle" in Jan. that is expanded + all premiums, 100m internet, phone service for $199 out the door. We've already had a bit of interest in that. We are also launching digital service by Jan 1. Even as an analog system with a small digital selection in the clear with no set tops, we've held onto our market. We aren't rolling out the latest and greatest, and I believe the consumers don't necessarily care that you have the latest whole home DVR setup($$$) as long as they can get what they want. Oh, our $85/month expanded service includes 4 HD set tops no extra charge. DVR is $5/month, that's mainly driven by the more expensive hardware and additional software licensing costs. It's not about extorting every dollar we can, it's offering a fair service for a fair price and remaining in business.I've personally built out my digital headend out of second hand parts and creativity for less than $20k. The most expensive parts of it all is the hardware to transcode mpeg4 to mpeg2, as we're using older set tops that only decode mpeg2 and have some networks that only send us a mpeg4 feed, I think it was 5 channels I had to transcode. I asked for quotes to do a modern digital headend from well known integrators. Their way was at best $500k.I have flexibility being an independent operator that the big corporate guys don't. At the end of the day, it's about what our customers want and delivering that to them for a fair price. There is room to cut the fat and lower the price on cable TV. I'm confident that the biggest operators are paying much less than I am for programming just due to their size. I handle most of my own negotiations, and I'm just some guy in rural Mississippi...There's constant cable bashing here..and I suppose its warranted overall...I'm not sure how many other independents are even out there that are doing anything other than dying.Have a look at what we are doing.. » belzonicable.com sims

join:2013-04-06 3 recommendations sims Member ATSC 3.0 approval Is dslr going to have an article on the fcc approving atsc 3.0 or was that less of a milestone than i'm thinking it was?