Cord Cutter Reach 22 Million by End of 2017

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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While it was suggested earlier that cord cutters would be to a number around 15.4 million people at the end of 2017, that number has now been revised to 22 million total by the end of the year. If you are not familiar with cord cutting, we have a specific Cord Cutters forum that is subscription-only. Shhhh.


In 2017, a total of 22.2 million U.S. adults will have cut the cord on cable, satellite or telco TV service to date - up 33% from 16.7 million in 2016 - the researcher now predicts. That’s significantly higher than eMarketer’s prior estimate of 15.4 million cord-cutters as of the end of this year. Meanwhile, the number of "cord-nevers" (consumers who have never subscribed to pay TV) will rise 5.8% this year, to 34.4 million.

"Younger audiences continue to switch to either exclusively watching [over-the-top] video or watching them in combination with free-TV options," said Chris Bendtsen, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. "Last year, even the Olympics and [the U.S.] presidential election could not prevent younger audiences from abandoning pay TV."
 
It's getting to the point where you either have cable or you pay for Netflix, Hulu, Youtube Red, Disney's Channel, Sling, Crackle, Crunchyroll, HBO Now, VRV...

I don't like advertisements.
 
Old_Way said:
I don't know how anyone can stand to watch standard TV anymore. Literally 1/3 of the air time is spent on commercials.... and providers expect us to PAY to watch them!
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Simple, use a DVR and time shift.

I rarely watch anything live. Even if I start something live, I usually hit the pause button, go do something for 10 minutes, and then continue so I can skip the commercials.

Even so, I'm seriously considering getting rid of cable and switching to something like Playstation Vue & Netflix.
If I could get local channels with an antenna, I probably would have already switched.
 
It's funny this got posted - I haven't watched 'regular' TV for over a year and then they took the wifi away from us at work, we went back to regular TV for a week and it took exactly 20 minutes to piss me off. Streaming is the way my children.
 
RogueTadhg said:
It's getting to the point where you either have cable or you pay for Netflix, Hulu, Youtube Red, Disney's Channel, Sling, Crackle, Crunchyroll, HBO Now, VRV...

I don't like advertisements.
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I'm not paying for any TV, streaming or not. All TV can fuck right off, in my humble opinion.
 
RogueTadhg said:
What got your knickers in a twist, Armenius?
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Before I cut all it off, every new show I tried to watch was a steaming pile, failing to hold my interest for more than 15 minutes. I concluded they no longer have anything of value to offer me anymore. I just want to watch F1 and IMSA, and those can be found through alternative means.
 
I cut. I live in the sticks and I still get 50 channels of free, OTA, TV. More than enough for my purposes. Netflix, Amazon, Sling fulfill the rest.
 
How many cord cutters have to deal with cable company imposed internet only surcharges? About six years ago when I last serious considered it, Comcast inflicted something like a $20-$30 monthly surcharge for being internet only. It was actually marginally cheaper, before taxes and other fees, to have the ultra-basic, minimalist cable package AND cable internet than just internet alone.

A cable plan is part of my annual HOA's dues so I might as well use it.
 
Cut the...satellite dish...a year ago, have been very happy.
Went from DirecTV Choice Xtra + Genie + Whole home w/2 extra rooms + Showtime was around $119/mo
Now using OTA + Sling Blue + Comedy Extra + Netflix 2 steams + Hulu limited commercial plan for like $45/mo. (I don't include the cost of internet because we had it with DTV also and it was the same cost then - $45 for Charter 100/4, speed tests pull 130/6.)
Generally don't miss anything. We used to DVR everything and watch it later, which at this point is the same as watching on demand the day after it airs.
 
Teenyman45 said:
How many cord cutters have to deal with cable company imposed internet only surcharges? About six years ago when I last serious considered it, Comcast inflicted something like a $20-$30 monthly surcharge for being internet only. It was actually marginally cheaper, before taxes and other fees, to have the ultra-basic, minimalist cable package AND cable internet than just internet alone.

A cable plan is part of my annual HOA's dues so I might as well use it.
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Didn't think they could do that. Do they still impose that surcharge for not having service?
 
$45 for Charter 100/4, speed tests pull 130/6.)
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:( I pay ~$10 more for 30/6 with a cable subscription ( that is a low end tier but still manages to be around $100 with all the tack on fees).

With that said its unlikely this will change
 
I think it's funny that your chosen graphic for this story is a coax connector when tons of 'cord cutters' have cable internet for their chosen data stream post 'cord cutting'. Not really cutting the cord is it? ;)
 
Old_Way said:
I don't know how anyone can stand to watch standard TV anymore. Literally 1/3 of the air time is spent on commercials.... and providers expect us to PAY to watch them!
Click to expand...

Yeah, its really bad. I'd say more than half the commericals now days are about Pills.
 
Old_Way said:
I don't know how anyone can stand to watch standard TV anymore. Literally 1/3 of the air time is spent on commercials.... and providers expect us to PAY to watch them!
Click to expand...

Some channels that run "older" syndicated programming like Seinfeld and Friends, let alone really old stuff like Lucy, are speeding up the shows by 5-10% so as to cram an extra minute or two of commercials in.

RogueTadhg said:
Didn't think they could do that. Do they still impose that surcharge for not having service?
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It's pitched as a bundling discount, but it's really a surcharge for not having cable considering it was the internet plan that's discounted and not the cable side or the combo as a whole.
 
Old_Way said:
I don't know how anyone can stand to watch standard TV anymore. Literally 1/3 of the air time is spent on commercials.... and providers expect us to PAY to watch them!
Click to expand...

My wife's favorite show 1 hour show has 26 minutes of commercials (the last time I checked / PVR situation so I can check).
 
I still rock the "every single channel" package since it lowers my internet cost by 50%. When you factor in the amount of on-demand movies available (for nothing extra) among all the pay channels is isn't THAT bad of a deal. I generally find the free over-the-air stuff to be pretty worthless, but there are plenty of cable shows I still watch. I have a Netflix account and Prime includes video content, too.
I have zero interest in using a bunch of a-la-carte pay services when cable essentially already covers that base in a more consistent manner.

Commercials don't bother me. They've been there my whole life so it's not like they just showed up out of the blue.

I feel pretty confident most of the people in this forum are more than capable of watching damn near anything for free, so obviously this is just me staying on the right side of the law...and Comcast.
 
I have been a cord cutter for years. I use Amazon prime, (never watch anything on it though), and Plex. With Plex I now have the local stations streaming inside the house from an external antenna and HDHR extend. The DVR functionality is great and with programs to remove the commercials from whatever I record is nice. I live in the actual sticks and we only get like 7 channels OTA, (3 of those are PBS or whatever) but enough for me to watch football when needed. The only thing I don't have is ESPN for those Monday night games. Otherwise I use no other apps.
 
drescherjm said:
My wife's favorite show 1 hour show has 26 minutes of commercials (the last time I checked / PVR situation so I can check).
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I've been watching The Strain on FX , pretty much 3 minutes of show, 7 of commercials.
 
Streaming TV has one of the same problems as Cable. If I want any of the Disney channels for the kids, I also have to pay for ESPN, something I don't want. Really hate having to spend $10+ for something I never watch. People used to subscribe top cable to get ESPN, now they are dropping cable because of ESPN. When are the cable companies going to wise up and do something about this forced "Bundling".

There was a story last week about Disney starting their own streaming site. If this also includes all the TV shows from the Disney channels, and the price is reasonable ($10 or less), then it might be an option to finally stop giving money to ESPN.
 
nutzo said:
Streaming TV has one of the same problems as Cable. If I want any of the Disney channels for the kids, I also have to pay for ESPN, something I don't want. Really hate having to spend $10+ for something I never watch. People used to subscribe top cable to get ESPN, now they are dropping cable because of ESPN. When are the cable companies going to wise up and do something about this forced "Bundling".

There was a story last week about Disney starting their own streaming site. If this also includes all the TV shows from the Disney channels, and the price is reasonable ($10 or less), then it might be an option to finally stop giving money to ESPN.
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Look at what you just wrote. Getting Disney + sports for $10 a month = bad. But, getting streaming Disney by itself for $10 a month is reasonable.
 
Domingo said:
I still rock the "every single channel" package since it lowers my internet cost by 50%. When you factor in the amount of on-demand movies available (for nothing extra) among all the pay channels is isn't THAT bad of a deal. I generally find the free over-the-air stuff to be pretty worthless, but there are plenty of cable shows I still watch. I have a Netflix account and Prime includes video content, too.
I have zero interest in using a bunch of a-la-carte pay services when cable essentially already covers that base in a more consistent manner.

Commercials don't bother me. They've been there my whole life so it's not like they just showed up out of the blue.

I feel pretty confident most of the people in this forum are more than capable of watching damn near anything for free, so obviously this is just me staying on the right side of the law...and Comcast.
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Same boat here with Comcast pushing most of the cost on the internet side so its worth paying for TV
 
Not sure I can mention this but I heard most people now use a USB "stick" over the internet for TV, Ive not seen it mentioned is why I posted.
 
Teenyman45 said:
Look at what you just wrote. Getting Disney + sports for $10 a month = bad. But, getting streaming Disney by itself for $10 a month is reasonable.
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You misunderstood. Just ESPN adds over $10/month to my cable bill, and I have no choice as it's part of the base package.
Disney also adds a cost (even though it's part of the base), and Disney XD is an extra $10 with my cable company, so it's more like $25 for 3 channels. $10 streaming would be a bargain.
 
Wolf-R1 said:
I think it's funny that your chosen graphic for this story is a coax connector when tons of 'cord cutters' have cable internet for their chosen data stream post 'cord cutting'. Not really cutting the cord is it? ;)
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A really old, crappy coax connector no less. Hex crimp is at least 15 years old
 
Killed off Direct TV about two weeks ago and made the move to PlayStation Vue. Have the Ultra pack for $75 p/m and we have access to everything we watched on Direct TV for a third of the price and don't have to deal with (or pay for) their shitty genie boxes that crap out every other day.
Service has been great with no quality or streaming issue running on three different TV's in the house. DVR function once you get use to it is actually pretty cool. Only real complaint I have is the Roku version of the App blows and is no where near the PS4 and Amazon Fire TV versions. I liked my Roku but had to replace it with another Fire TV to make everything the same.
 
I have never owned a TV subscription, and I never will. I'll also be making the switch to a local ISP that only provides Internet to avoid having someone try to upswell me every few weeks trying to get me to buy crap I don't need.
 
Its just as expensive to cut the cord now as it is to pay for the smallest TV packages. Every content provider now has their own proprietary streaming service. We will eventually pay $5/mo for a single content providers shows.
 
I'm surprised it's that few. That's only like, what, 10% of the US?

You can get all the network channels in HD OTA, movies on Netflix/Amazon Prime and soon HBO and ESPN through the internet. You don't get much more for all that money.
 
Old_Way said:
I don't know how anyone can stand to watch standard TV anymore. Literally 1/3 of the air time is spent on commercials.... and providers expect us to PAY to watch them!
Click to expand...

Have had DVR's so long that if I have to watch commercials for anything I don't watch it period. I find it impossible.
 
RogueTadhg said:
Didn't think they could do that. Do they still impose that surcharge for not having service?
Click to expand...
I'm with Cogeco (Canada/QC) and they give an extra rebate for each service you use (internet, cable, phone). On top of that the extra charge for unlimited is also more expensive if you don't subscribe to cable and phone.
By having only internet I save around 10$ per month vs having internet/cable/phone with them.
But I haven't had a cable sub for nearly 10 years already and with a cellphone I don't need their crappy voip service either.
 
I only keep cable or sat for live sports... live streaming sport via ESPN or others is still crap quality though...

I'd rather give my money directly to HBO, Netflix, etc. than pay to watch commercials.

Comcast, AT&T, etc. need to drop TV all together and use the bandwidth for more, better internet based video services.
 
90% of the shows I watch keep 5 episodes on their website I can watch for free with minimal ads.

The others...netflix normally picks them up and I binge.

So besides netflix...I don't pay for TV.

I admit, I don't watch much sports and college sports (save march madness) is the only thing making me consider slingTV.
 
Cord cut all the way, free of cable, netflix, any paid subscription based entertainment service. Should have done it years ago.
 
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