As more cable companies experiment with live-streaming and cable sports channels make major events available online for their customers, experts say consumers will soon have fewer — not more — reasons to cut the cord.

When World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. WWE, -1.39% fans tune into the 30th annual “WrestleMania Week,” which kicked off on April 1, many will do so online for $9.99 a month. The WWE introduced the service in February in an attempt to broaden its coverage for those who don’t have cable or satellite coverage. (The price is a slight premium on content streaming service Netflix, which costs $7.99 a month.)

Kentucky's Julius Randle (30) dunks against Wichita State. Kentucky upset top-seeded Wichita 78-76 in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. USA Today Sports

The “WWE Network,” billed as the first 24/7 network delivered directly to fans through digital distribution, is available on desktops and laptops via WWE.com. The monthly subscription also includes original programming, reality shows, documentaries, classic matches and over 1,500 hours of video on demand at launch. (WWE will announce how many people have subscribed on April 7.)

And the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Turner Sports and CBS Sports live-streamed every game of the tournament via their “March Madness Live” streaming product for TNT, TBS, and truTV cable customers; viewers without a cable subscription could see the games that aired on CBS online. These generated 64 million live video streams, up 40% in the first two weeks of the tournament compared with last year, and netted 13.5 million hours of live video watching, up 7% over last year’s tournament.

Although they seem like natural rivals, even content providers are partnering with cable companies to bring live video. Apple Inc. AAPL, -3.17% is in early discussions with cable company Comcast Inc. about a new joint set-top box to stream live and on-demand TV and movies. And last December, Time Warner Cable US:TWC updated its Roku app to include live and on-demand viewing.

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Sports organizations and concert promoters have dabbled in pay-per-event models in recent years to see if they could replace or augment traditional broadcast or pay-per-view models, says Tim Siglin, chairman of Braintrust Digital Inc., a digital media production company in Harriman, Tenn. “The biggest difference this time around is the quality of the content streams equals or exceeds broadcast (television) equivalents,” he says.

Regardless of the quality of the video streaming, the move toward “a la carte” events is actually bad news for would-be cable cutters, experts say. “Live events is one of the main reasons why the majority of people can/will never cut the cord,” says Dan Rayburn, a principal analyst with Frost & Sullivan. “The WWE events aren’t free. You have to pay. So even if you cut the cord, you can’t save money.”

Sporting events will never be given away for free, Rayburn says, and subscriptions will add up. “If you look at most of the live events on TV that have big audiences, none are online for free,” he says, citing Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Nascar. (MarketWatch’s “Cord-Cutting Calculator” suggests a digital antenna for live local sports events and those on network TV.)

But others say it’s still too early to say that live-streaming won’t redefine the TV industry. “Change always starts with individual events like sports games or live concerts, but rapidly grows and changes entire industries,” says technology consultant Jeff Kagan. “That’s what’s happening here. It’s already transforming newspapers, magazines and radio.” (“This American Life” and NPR both stream online.)

“This live-streaming trend makes it easier to cut the cord whether or not there are additional costs,” says Yung Trang, president of TechBargains.com. “In the case where it’s free, then cable becomes less necessary. Even where there is a cost, then at least we move closer to a la carte pricing — allowing people to select only the content they really want versus getting a bundle of channels.”

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Why cable bills are only going up