Fewer Cord-Cutters Flocking to Live-TV Streaming Services Than Expected

Megalith

Megalith

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The subscription numbers for live-TV services haven’t been that impressive, evidently. This writer presents five potential reasons as to why cord-cutters haven’t jumped over to services that are generally less expensive than pay TV and don’t require contracts or leased hardware. My thinking is that people are realizing how overrated and boring most television is and are perfectly content with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Millions of Americans have canceled their cable TV subscriptions in the last decade, choosing instead to get their video entertainment over the internet. A growing number of services have popped up in recent years that offer cable-like live-TV streaming for this audience: Sling TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, with Hulu planning to launch a competitor soon, and Comcast reportedly looking to get into the fray. Yet, despite the multiple options and the large potential market of cord-cutters and cord-nevers, these platforms have yet to win over the masses.
 
I like a lot of older movies and shows. Netflix has that covered for me for the most part. I am still iffy about more current stuff.

I am seriously considering Hulu Plus and dropping my cable subscription for more current viewing.
 
To bad Netflix streaming is still garbage. Has been since I signed up years ago.

Every so often I re-add it to my account to see if it got better and I have only wasted money.
 
I've lived without cable for about 7 years now. My kids (under the age of 10) don't know what commercials are except when we stay in a hotel - they think they suck and don't believe such a thing can exist.
I also have an OTA antenna so we can watch the occasional sports event or maybe something over broadcast tv. Most consumption comes from Netflix, a little from Hulu Plus (mostly my wife). I have Amazon video (via Prime), but never seem to watch it much (not sure why?).
I tried SlingTV. It was $20 a month and basically cable. It had commercials. I canceled it as there was nothing much to watch and I didn't want to pay about $20 a month. If this service was $5 a month, maybe I'd consider it? I realize it will never be this cheap. That's ok with me. I have more content that I have time the way it is.
 
I cut the cord 3 years ago, not because I was making some big financial savings and willing to live without TV... I just realized that there is literally not a single thing worth watching, not at $2400/year too! people won't cut the cord then jump on paid streaming services.. it's the same crap. many I speak to are similar to me, they cut the cord because TV has become pointless waste squeezed between distasteful commercials.. I really don't give a shit that some millionaire can't get a chubby or Mrs Nolan has shingles again.... I basically just summed up 8 hours of TV there.
 
After 15 years, I finally dropped my DISH service (~$80 a month). Bumped up my Comcast service (Internet only) to 200Mbps and now just stream everything (HBO Now, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc). Get all my local channels via an antenna in the attic. Probably should have done this a good couple of years ago when HBO first started to provide their service via streaming sans a provider... Dish is probably just going to end up being a service primarily for those that have no fast access to the net...
 
Hulu is trash and Sling doesn't work with Chromecast. Not to mention that most of these service providers have the hands of the telecom companies halfway up their ass telling them how to run their service.
 
TwiceOver said:
Appointment viewing has been dead since the dawn of cable cutting. Nobody wants to watch anything live unless it is time sensitive like sports. We are an on-demand society, get over it legacy broadcasters.
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This would be my perspective. We do not want passive broadcasts. I don't want a cheaper radio....I want to choose the songs myself. That concept has moved over to video very nicely. Curated content still has value, but I don't want it to be the only method.
 
I have no interest in streaming LIVE TV, or paying to watch commercials.
Even with cable I rarely watch anything live. I'd rather watch it delayed or the next day/week, and skip over the commercials using my DVR.

Only streaming service I would consider is if all the episodes (or at least the last 5 or 6) where available to watch when I want to watch them, and at a cheap enough price without commercials.
 
After reading TFA, I offer Option 6: Some folks may have discovered they don't need always available zillions of choices passive video entertainment services regardless of the source.
There ARE other options:
Gaming either tabletop or online.
Going out to an entertainment option be it a movie, sports event, concert etc.
Doing something productive.
Reading something. Note the recent [H] posting about the growth of paper book sales.
Going outside and doing stuff.

Dropping the cable bill leaves a fair amount of free cash that can be spent on the other options.
 
Also the other problem is that how much are people really saving when they hope to cut the cord? This problem is more evident in huge markets where you really only have one or two choices for internet provider. For instance take a look at Chicago where your options are either Comcast or ATT (some pockets have RCN). They each have a stake in cable/satellite providers so they offer pricing to get customer to bundle services. If they go to cancel their tv service the cost doesn't exactly go down by half. Usually your monthly cost for one service is between 70-80% of the bundle price. So when you add the price of internet only + live tv streaming only option (between $30-40) it really doesn't make as much sense as one thought to begin with. When people find this out then they either just stay with their bundled service or if their true objective is to save money they forego paying for the additional service.
 
SilverSliver said:
The problem with streaming services now is you need 10 different streaming services for a variety of shows you might watch. It's becoming a PITA. Every media company decided they wanted their own and it's garbage.
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This issue with this is that's basically the point of cable. They negotiate the contracts on your behalf so you can get a well rounded lineup for a decent price. The problem right now is that it's very difficult for them to do just that, because if you want to get content A you also need to pay for B, C, and D. If anything the break up of content into smaller bundles is what everyone has been asking for, but then it's up to you to pick and choose what pieces you want and put them together. What you want is another middle man to do all of the leg work for you, but try to negotiate with just the pieces you want. I actually do think that could happen, because there can now be competition since it's not tied to a particular service. Just like Hotels, plane tickets, rental cars, etc, at some point we'll probably seeing 3rd parties pop up that can offer you deals much like the 100s of booking agents for vacations.


The biggest hurdle still comes from advertising. The cats already out of the bag, and anyone who's used a DVR doesn't want to put up with commercials they can't skip. The rare exception is going to be live, linear content because commercial breaks are already embedded into the programs. Otherwise with the invention of VOD, I think a lot of people simple won't put up with being forced to watch commercials on something that's on demand.
 
Dead Parrot said:
Some folks may have discovered they don't need always available zillions of choices passive video entertainment services regardless of the source.
There ARE other options:
Gaming either tabletop or online.
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This probably isn't a surprise to many people on this board, but there is a surprising amount of table top organizations popping up. My wife is involved in a board game club of housewives. And they aren't nerds either, just normal women with normal women hobbies and interests.

And I have seen quite a few official storefronts and establishments here in DFW where you can go play games (either for free or fee based).

I thinks it's good....get people interacting in real life again (so that hopefully IRL isn't a "thing" anymore and is just normal).
 
I've tried them all and they are basically internet based cable replacements. That's the problem, not the solution. I want to be able to pick and choose which channels I want, not a "package" to just get HGTV etc. Plus last time I checked none of them have a DVR like feature that actually works.

Yeah I'm on Netflix and Amazon Prime, but without current HGTV, Cooking channel, golf channel, ESPN, etc... doesn't look like I'm going anywhere soon.

I blame my wife. If not for her, I would totally just be OTA + Netflix/Amazon.
 
morgwon said:
Also the other problem is that how much are people really saving when they hope to cut the cord? This problem is more evident in huge markets where you really only have one or two choices for internet provider. For instance take a look at Chicago where your options are either Comcast or ATT (some pockets have RCN). They each have a stake in cable/satellite providers so they offer pricing to get customer to bundle services. If they go to cancel their tv service the cost doesn't exactly go down by half. Usually your monthly cost for one service is between 70-80% of the bundle price. So when you add the price of internet only + live tv streaming only option (between $30-40) it really doesn't make as much sense as one thought to begin with. When people find this out then they either just stay with their bundled service or if their true objective is to save money they forego paying for the additional service.
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I know this first hand, in July I will be cutting the cord, even with the Internet price going up if you drop cable what people don't realize is there is about $50 worth of fees added on to your cable bill. HD access fee, DVR fee, combo phone/ modem rental fee, regulatory fees, broadcast fees etc... With just Internet you might be paying taxes, that's it. I will save about $70/mo even with the promo rate where the bundle is supposedly almost the same price as the internet alone. That's with me going from 75 to 150mbit Internet.
 
Maxime Mitchell said:
They even started to put commercials during shows !!! Kind of youtube bottom ads...
It looks like as if they're trying to kill themselves... how on earth are people not complaining about that !?
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I've noticed the banner ads. That's so annoying.
 
I think one reason for the lackluster adoption is the lack of awareness about these services. I only found out about SlingTV and Playstation Vue because I'm a nerd and read tech sites. Unless you are specifically searching for it there is a good chance you will never have heard such a thing exists. Everyone has heard of Netflix, Comcast, Time Warner, etc.

There's also just not much TV that people care whether they see live. Sports are almost the only thing on "cable tv" channels that would matter if you watch it live.
 
There are too many services slicing it their way. I pay for Netflix, Amazon, HBO, cable TV and I STILL do not get all the good shows. I'd need a Hulu sub and probably Showtime. It is too fragmented.

Cable TV gets the first bullet because they are cutting content to add ads, and they censor things so GTFO cable.

Netflix is a close second because they cut a lot of old stuff I liked to have money for their own productions, some of which are really good, but hmm.

Amazon comes with Prime so that's kind of masked.

HBO is still my best value for the HBO streaming sub.

But really it is annoying as hell to remember and then navigate a different system for all those shows. I have no solution. Cable was supposed to be that but they fucked up to maximize revenue. So again, cable gets shot first.
 
travbrad said:
Sports are almost the only thing on "cable tv" channels that would matter if you watch it live.
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The chink in the armor for sports is starting to have consequences. ESPN recently laid off more than 100 people mostly journalists. The networks have been paying ridiculous rights fees to the point where owners don't even care about home game attendance. That revenue is just icing on the cake. Well ESPN is feeling some of the brunt of the cord cutters cause they are attempting to become lean. Funny thing is that they were more than willing to keep the screaming heads like Steven A Smith. His contract alone would have probably covered 50% of the layoffs. They don't understand that a majority of the content comes from actual journalism.
 
While price was a factor, the main reason I finally dropped cable a few years ago was that I realized I didn't like anything that was on and really hadn't for years. I only ever had the TV on as background noise. So why would I go to a service that offered the exact same thing? Even my Netflix sub probably won't survive the year. I think the only thing I've watched on it this year was the new MST3K.
 
LightsOut41 said:
I absolutely love Playstation Vue.
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If they would enable some parental controls, the DVR lasted longer.. and maybe allow you to start watching a program that is in progress but being recorded from beginning it'd be perfect.

They may have addressed the last one but I just re-upped and haven't checked yet. I was annoyed before that I'd be recording a game, but I had to wait until it finished before I could start watching from the beginning.

I disagree with the OP and feel there is a ton of solid TV programming these days. There is more than I have time to watch.
 
I cut the cord last year. I signed up for sling because I wanted to watch some college football live. The problem was the price. Because you cant make your own package you end up paying upwards of 60 bucks for tiers you dont want. I was back in cable hell. Cancelled after a month, spent 30 bucks on an hd antenna, problem solved. Now networks are starting to offer their entire lineups for streaming for 6 bucks a month. Hulu, netflix, and amazon prime cover all the other bases for a much cheaper price. Why would anyone flock to these services?
 
I cut the cord long ago, maybe 12 years....I don't mind paying for Sling TV to catch all the soccer matches on BEIN and the other 3-4 channels we watch on it. Everything else I find elsewhere free of cost :).
 
Commercials. That's why I canceled my subscription to Sling TV and just watch Netflix and Amazon Prime now. It's getting absolutely ridiculous now with commercial breaks literally every 5 minutes. Makes TV shows almost unwatchable to me. Sling TV was also buggy as hell. That was another beef with it. Lots of freezes and buffering. Often it would just freeze for several seconds then the whole app would restart.

In my humble opinion, the oversaturation of commercials is what's killing live TV. Go back to the way it was in the 70's and 80's, commercial breaks every 15 minutes and that's it. That was much more reasonable and tolerable. Every few minutes to the point that 30 minutes of an hour long program is commercials is just absurd to me at least.
 
MacLeod said:
Commercials. That's why I canceled my subscription to Sling TV and just watch Netflix and Amazon Prime now. It's getting absolutely ridiculous now with commercial breaks literally every 5 minutes. Makes TV shows almost unwatchable to me. Sling TV was also buggy as hell. That was another beef with it. Lots of freezes and buffering. Often it would just freeze for several seconds then the whole app would restart.

In my humble opinion, the oversaturation of commercials is what's killing live TV. Go back to the way it was in the 70's and 80's, commercial breaks every 15 minutes and that's it. That was much more reasonable and tolerable. Every few minutes to the point that 30 minutes of an hour long program is commercials is just absurd to me at least.
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I wish they'd do it like overseas tv. Where you get to watch the whole tv show, then there's like 5 minutes of commercials inbetween that show and the next one coming on. That short break gives you time to do fix up a snack or whatever. The commercials make for some ambient noise while you do whatever before coming back for the next show.

Hell, most tv shows nowadays are 20 minutes long with 10 minutes of commercials sprinkled during the show. It's ridiculous how many commercials are in there now.
 
Lol, because a large number are doing it to save money. I pay for Netflix, and Prime(but only because of shipping benefits). Anything else I'll just torrent if you don't want to offer it through those services. I'm not signing up for 8 different services at $10-40/month. Generally I'm watching TV to waste some time, not because I particularly care about or need it.

Offer me a an option for NFL games where I can just stream the games I want a la carte for a few bucks each and I'll watch your shitty commercial filled games, other wise I just don't watch.
 
I feel you could get like the under 40 crowd to switch over to an all internet based viewing system. 40+ though, they watch a lot of TV. My parents constantly have the TV on. Almost 24 hours a day 363 days. With almost no cable company providing unlimited data, you're talking about using your monthly allotment in like 10 days(2TB monthly, 720p stream, PSVue).
 
I use more streaming on my smartphone nowadays, with Cox and their Contour app I usually watch the news off and on during the day/evening but in terms of watching actual movies or TV shows (even if they're available on demand) I don't bother all that much. No current subscriptions to Netflix or other services because most of the time they just don't have shit I care to watch. I loaded the Contour app earlier too see the live listings and scrolled through the entire list of like 365+ channels with their "Contour Utimate" package and literally there wasn't a single thing worth stopping on, and I don't see that actually being anything that improves.

Soon, very soon we're actually going to cross over that "500 channels and nothing on..." point. I think back to Bruce Springsteen's song lyrics saying "57 channels and nothing on..." and IIRC the last time there was only 57 channels on a cable TV system I had access to was probably 1990 or something. :)
 
Supercharged_Z06 said:
After 15 years, I finally dropped my DISH service (~$80 a month). Bumped up my Comcast service (Internet only) to 200Mbps and now just stream everything (HBO Now, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc). Get all my local channels via an antenna in the attic. Probably should have done this a good couple of years ago when HBO first started to provide their service via streaming sans a provider... Dish is probably just going to end up being a service primarily for those that have no fast access to the net...
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Are you saving any money by adding those streaming and bumping up internet?
 
IMO, people have just adjusted their watching habits. I think they're just more willing to not watch certain programming rather than finding other ways to watch it. The myth of the cord cutters streaming everything via Kodi and whatnot isn't entirely true. I work with a ton of luddite cord cutters that don't know the first thing about watching programming that isn't on Netflix or Amazon, so they just don't.
 
Burticus said:
I blame my wife. If not for her, I would totally just be OTA + Netflix/Amazon.
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It cuts both ways. I was advising a friend at work if she should cord-cut, and my first question was do you need sports? If not for her husband she would be OTA/Netflix/Amazon too.

SlayVus said:
I feel you could get like the under 40 crowd to switch over to an all internet based viewing system. 40+ though, they watch a lot of TV.
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49 this month. Been sans cable since 2009- and have Amazon/Netflix/Hulu and a TiVo OTA DVR. The only TV I watch less of now is live TV. I also have subscriptions to both HBO via Amazon Channels and MLB.TV. That's the only live TV I watch, San Francisco Giants and John Oliver.

Domingo said:
I work with a ton of luddite cord cutters that don't know the first thing about watching programming that isn't on Netflix or Amazon, so they just don't.
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Or they choose not to. A lot of us don't want to deal with content from torrents, binary groups or via hacked FireTV sticks.
 
I can't stand commercials. i used to DVR for the commercial skipping ability and HD, but I got tired of paying for a ton of crap I don't need. Went internet only, and slashed my bill in half.
 
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