Cord-Cutting Could Cost Pay TV Industry $1 Billion in a Year

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If cord cutting is costing the cable industry this much money, why aren't they doing anything about it? You would think that cable companies would be scrambling to make people want to keep cable versus cord-cutting.

Pay-TV providers could lose nearly $1 billion in revenue as 800,000 customers cut the cord during the next 12 months, according to a new study from the firm cg42. The results, which are based on an online survey of 1,119 U.S. customers, estimates that pay-TV providers could lose about $1,248 per cord-cutter annually. That’s because the average cord-cutter saves $104 a month—about 56% of their bill—from dropping cable TV.
 
Yet cable TV prices continue to go up every year. Looks like the media & cable companies are in a state of denial over the value of their product offerings.

I can't receive OTA TV, so I'm stuck with Cable or Satellite TV.
Only reason I'm still with my Cable company is that every year when they raise the rates, I call in to cancel the TV service and they give me a large discount to keep me from canceling. Not a way to treat long term customers (20 years).
 
Which is interesting considering in this thread from Tuesday we established that 82% of households still pay for cable, and most of those are keeping it because of shitty bundling deals which mean you save almost nothing by cutting out TV service like the below:

Zarathustra[H] said:
When broadband internet first started coming out, the internet and TV portion of the bills were fairly similar. Roughly half each. If you bundled them you'd get a discount, but it was only like 15% off the top.

For sake of argument, lets use made up numbers.


In the past:

Internet: $49.95
TV: $49.95
Bundle discount: -15%

Total: $85

Want only Internet? Great. It's $49.95


Today:

Double Play Bundlelicious BBQ TV+Internets OMGZ has to has: $139

Want only internet? No problem. That will be $124.99



Instead of seeing consumer desires changing and opting to innovate to be the best players in the market, the shitty Cable/Telco's dug their heels in, and instead devised "clever" marketing schemes to force consumers to pay whether they buy TV or not.

It ought to be criminal. In fact it might be, because they are using their monopolistic powers (owning the last mile intertubes) as competitive leverage against future IPTV technologies, where anyone can freely compete for TV market share for any customer who has an Internet connection. By forcing bundles like the above (not to mention adding scummy data caps, intentionally slowing down network transmissions to IPTV providers, etc. etc.), people have already - whether they want to or not - paid for TV, so they are less likely to consider online alternatives, killing many businesses before they even start.

Classic monopolistic behavior, using dominance in one category to force out competition in another. Microsoft was sued for Billions for far lesser transgressions.

I can't wait for the FCC and the DOJ to whip out the long cock of the law and shove it up their assess.

Of course this will never happen, as the Telcos and the Cable industry have well heeled lobbyists that own congress and possibly even the presidency and regulators.
Click to expand...
 
The absolute worst is having to watch almost one-half hour of commercials for an hour show. I just couldn't pay for that any longer. I'd actually be open to a subscription if I could, pause and resume at will, not pay for the "privilege" of renting a box, and cut all commercials. They do that, and I'm back in.
 
Most if not all cable companies provide internet services. The cost of those services continues to rise, while they continue to introduce more restrictive caps, overage charges, and similar to milk more out of their customers. Consumers have shown that they don't care about tiny data caps on their cellphones, to the point where cable companies can offer tiny data caps of only a few hundred gigabytes yet still pretend like they are being "generous". Data usage will continue to increase dramatically over time while caps will increase very slowly if at all, until we are forced to pay cable companies so much extra for higher caps or overages that they will probably prefer it if you stream and use more data instead of subscribing to traditional TV.
 
Dear Cable providers, offer us low cost TV and you will get more customers back.
do you rather want 2 million people at $50 per month for TV (total of $100M) or have 500,000 people at $120 per month (total at $60M). You make more money with more people when the cost is lower.
people want quality channels (no expensive packages and themes) If I could choose my own channels, I would only have 65 channels, but 65 good channels compare to the crap 200 channels we get. The only extra package you can include is movies and adults channels.
we only want HD, all channels should be in HD by now.
have better machines, Im tired of scrolling a super slow guide menu, get your shits together. IPTV Guide menues way faster.
stop jacking up the prices for renting machines. instead, charge us monthly until the box is paid, then stop charging a renting fee and let us upgrade to your newest model every 5 years for $10.
 
One of the problems is people are subsidizing sports packages whether they want them or not. Last I read it was about 35$ per account. Cox is 74.99 a month for 50mbps. Back in the early aughts it was 34.99 for 25mbps. Oligopoly ftw!
 
nutzo said:
Yet cable TV prices continue to go up every year. Looks like the media & cable companies are in a state of denial over the value of their product offerings.

I can't receive OTA TV, so I'm stuck with Cable or Satellite TV.
Only reason I'm still with my Cable company is that every year when they raise the rates, I call in to cancel the TV service and they give me a large discount to keep me from canceling. Not a way to treat long term customers (20 years).
Click to expand...

Amazon (which allows subscriptions to cinemax, hbo and more), Hulu, Netflix, HBO Now, and Sling doesn't do it for you?
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Which is interesting considering in this thread from Tuesday we established that 82% of households still pay for cable, and most of those are keeping it because of shitty bundling deals which mean you save almost nothing by cutting out TV service like the below:
Click to expand...

Bundling is great during the promotional period. But they really sock it to you for extras and "regulatory fees" which aren't part of the package deal. And once you outside of promotion and are still locked in by contract, they charge you a fortune.
 
zomby said:
Dear Cable providers, offer us low cost TV and you will get more customers back.
do you rather want 2 million people at $50 per month for TV (total of $100M) or have 500,000 people at $120 per month (total at $60M). You make more money with more people when the cost is lower.
Click to expand...

Your math is a lil flawed. You have to figure in licensing fees cable companies pay out to the content providers. It's one of the reasons why netflix is producing so much of their own content now. TV content licensing IS expensive and there were regular rate hikes that were faster than inflation. The cable company just passed that onto you. But the cable companies were also making more money at the same time after licensing fees. So they could have cared less. However the cost return curve was starting to work against them as customers started to balk at package fees. That is when cable companies started protesting rate hikes from content providers because it was cutting into their bottom line (they had to cut margins to keep customers from dropping.)


Media companies figured out netflix wasn't a niche any more and there was a lot of money to be made there and almost doubled the price from one year to the next for the same content. This is one reason netflix had to raise their price. Netflix I believe now also has to pay for each time a show is watched too...which is why I believe the "Start from beginning option" is now gone...cost saving measure.
 
The cable companies can't do anything about it because networks are screwing them over and raising rates.
 
ocme said:
The cable companies can't do anything about it because networks are screwing them over and raising rates.
Click to expand...
Supply and demand. When cable companies can no longer afford the networks, the networks are going to lose customers until they lower their rates.
 
Cable doesn't have to do anything more than raise the internet fee. Internet an OTA is how all of my families' media is consumed.
 
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DigitalGriffin said:
Netflix I believe now also has to pay for each time a show is watched too...which is why I believe the "Start from beginning option" is now gone...cost saving measure.
Click to expand...

I saw that "Start from the beginning" option just the other day. However, it was on a Netflix original series.
 
I've been on Netflix for a while now, and just recently added Sling and Crunchyroll - which is a piece of cake when I got a Roku2 for Father's Day.

Frankly, I don't miss cable one bit. The only thing I miss is the DVR, but with how politicized this current election is getting and how the actors and Main Stream Media are totally whoring themselves out, I am finding myself wanting that DVR even less.

Meanwhile, Cable keeps losing customers, and they keep raising prices to compensate. Eventually, they will go under from this.
 
I cut the cord recently because Time Warner jacked my rates and bundle package to nearly $150 a month. I had been at $125 for almost a decade.

I was getting 300/20 internet and the TV only.

I then looked into Playstation Vue. Even the basic $35 package had all the channels I wanted.

300/20 internet + Playstation Vue = $90/month, savings of $60.
 
Cord has been cut for many years. Now if sling would get more shows on demand instead of the live only nonsense that some channels are locked down to... I mean the point of it is for me to watch the show with commercials isn't it? Why prohibit me from doing so if I miss the realtime window..
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Which is interesting considering in this thread from Tuesday we established that 82% of households still pay for cable, and most of those are keeping it because of shitty bundling deals which mean you save almost nothing by cutting out TV service like the below:
Click to expand...

If you have WOW! available in your area, and only have cable internet, it is about 50% the price of what you would pay if you had cable TV as well.

Same goes for Comcast and Mediacom

Now if you go for the "deals" that have super crappy speeds and cable TV, then yeah, it is cheaper. But I am comparing by speeds.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
I cut the cord recently because Time Warner jacked my rates and bundle package to nearly $150 a month. I had been at $125 for almost a decade.

I was getting 300/20 internet and the TV only.

I then looked into Playstation Vue. Even the basic $35 package had all the channels I wanted.

300/20 internet + Playstation Vue = $90/month, savings of $60.
Click to expand...

How do you like Vue? I'm also on twc 300/20+tv at 140 a month.
 
Bowman15 said:
God I wish I could up vote this one million more times....!!!!!
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It was both. The cable company was dipping in for greater profits also. Cable would like your TV subscription as they do make more money. (Especially after fees.) BUT they make so much more off broadband. If you haven't noticed your data-cable bill has been raising faster than the rate of inflation also.

So they were both guilty...got keep the fat cats at the top happy with high returns.
 
How I hate cable TV, let me count the ways.

#1 I hate renting the cable boxes which apparently eats more electricity than my refrigerator.

#2 I hate having to pay for packages for just the one channel I want.

#3 I hate the hidden fees that randomly appears on my bill.

#4 I also hate TV. Like seriously, what's good on TV to watch besides new episodes of Rick and Morty? And that shit doesn't last forever, until the next big short lived show appears. This is why I sometimes watch anime cause if I can't get a good story, at least I get to watch boobs. Sometimes if the Earth and Moon line up, I get to see both. And of course you can't get this anime on TV, so off to the internet with me.

yTnIxLm.gif
 
thesmokingman said:
How do you like Vue? I'm also on twc 300/20+tv at 140 a month.
Click to expand...

Well I went through the trial of Vue and I was actually impressed with it. Strangely it worked better on my Amazon Fire TV than my PS4 but the way they have the service and DVR function setup is pretty interesting. Only reason I didn’t keep it was because they are missing the CW and the only really technical issue I had was how it fast forwards to skip commercials needed work. I did setup several of my side clients that didn't want to pay for cable anymore on Vue using Amazon Fire TV and they all love it.

You can sign up for a 7 day trial and test it out, but I would check your zip code just to see what you can get in your area. Some area's can't stream certain channels and you will see Lite on the package name.
PlayStation Vue

Update: You can get HBO and Cinamax as an add on now too.
 
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SGTGimpy said:
I went through the trial of Vue and I was actually impressed with it. Strangely it worked better on my Amazon Fire TV than my PS4 but the way they have the service and DVR function setup is pretty interesting. Only reason I didn’t keep it was they are missing the CW and the only issue I have was how it fast forwards to skip commercials. I have several clients that didn't want to pay for cable anymore and I set them up on it using Amazon Fire TV and they all love it.

You can sign up for a 7 day trial and test it out, but I would check your zip code just to see what you can get in your area. Some area's can't stream certain channels and you will see Lite on the package name.
PlayStation Vue
Click to expand...


Vue is really growing on me. The guide feature is pretty nice, and it's hard to beat the price of the content. I feel like I get way more for my dollar vs Netflix/Hulu. I watch maybe 1-3% of Netflix content due to how much of the same crap is in every category.
 
I cut the cord like 4 years ago. It's really not that big of a deal.
 
I haven't had cable in over five years. The only thing I miss is sporting events. Not a big deal though I just got to the bar for ones I really want to see.
 
I believe their method is to keep your data caps the same, and then doubling your bandwidth our of the goodness of their hearts. So when you inevitably bust your cap they can up charge you, then move you to a higher costing tier. At least that what's happened to me.
 
DukenukemX said:
#1 I hate renting the cable boxes which apparently eats more electricity than my refrigerator.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my old FiOS boxes in my old house didn't even have a sleep mode. They would just shut off screen mode when powered off, and still consume as much power as when on. Really frustrating. They aren't paying the power bills for the boxes, so they don't care.

Now with my HTPC's they all use ~20W at the wall when powwered on, and sleep at under 2W when not used.

Of course I've added a massive server which serves - among other things - my MythTV backend, so in total I am probably usingh more power than I would with just cable boxes, but probably not by much, and the server has many other uses. The MythTV Backend is just one of many virtual machines running on it.

DukenukemX said:
#4 I also hate TV. Like seriously, what's good on TV to watch besides new episodes of Rick and Morty? And that shit doesn't last forever, until the next big short lived show appears. This is why I sometimes watch anime cause if I can't get a good story, at least I get to watch boobs. Sometimes if the Earth and Moon line up, I get to see both. And of course you can't get this anime on TV, so off to the internet with me.
Click to expand...

I feel the same way, but my fiance does not. I feel like I can get just about everything I want elsewhere, but she likes to veg and channel surf. Makes no sense to me to surf through endless garbage reality TV home renovation and cooking shows, but that's what she likes.

I can get the few TV shows I like for much cheaper elsewhere. The late night comedy shows are pretty much all I enjoy cable for. I'll also watch local news occasionally, and Red Soz games of course, but that's pretty rare.

I'd argue with my fiance about it, but the way the bundle packages are set up, I save almost nothing by cancelling the TV portion of my FiOS subscription, so I might as well keep it.
 
Steve said:
If cord cutting is costing the cable industry this much money, why aren't they doing anything about it? You would think that cable companies would be scrambling to make people want to keep cable versus cord-cutting.

Pay-TV providers could lose nearly $1 billion in revenue as 800,000 customers cut the cord during the next 12 months, according to a new study from the firm cg42. The results, which are based on an online survey of 1,119 U.S. customers, estimates that pay-TV providers could lose about $1,248 per cord-cutter annually. That’s because the average cord-cutter saves $104 a month—about 56% of their bill—from dropping cable TV.
Click to expand...
I think they want your money but on their terms. They do not want to let the customer choose with any real choice. So in the end they want to force you to choose them...>_> like voting in North Korea.
 
Give me local channels at an affordable price. I don't want a bunch of extra crap. I'm using an OTA antenna now - it's ok, but I don't always get the best reception on certain channels.
I'd pay $5-$10 a month potentially for an HD signal (my antenna is 1080i, not compressed like TWC in my area). If you let me add a few more channels I care about, maybe I'd pay for a few like SciFi, A&E, USA, etc. I loved Aereo when it was available - assholes shut it down hard.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Amazon (which allows subscriptions to cinemax, hbo and more), Hulu, Netflix, HBO Now, and Sling doesn't do it for you?
Click to expand...

No.

We don't subscribe to movie channels (no HBO, etc.) Dropped Netflix when the selection got worse (got tired of adding movies to the queue, only to no longer have them available when we wanted to watch them.

The family has a number of shows/series they like to watch on regular and cable channels, which we record on our Media Center PC and watch later so we can skip the commercials.
Many of these shows are not available on any of the streaming services.
Also, the kids like to record a full season, and then go back and watch it again while they are waiting for the next season. Easy for my HTPC to handle with 4TB dedicated to recording TV shows :eek:

Plus we would lose all the local channels (although that is becoming less important as they switch to more garbage programing)
 
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Unless some sort of consumer protections are put into place, Cord-Cutting is going to drive the cost of broadband through the roof. I sure hope no one here thinks for a second these bastards are going to sit by and watch their yearly Yacht upgrades go away, do you?
 
TechLarry said:
Unless some sort of consumer protections are put into place, Cord-Cutting is going to drive the cost of broadband through the roof. I sure hope no one here thinks for a second these bastards are going to sit by and watch their yearly Yacht upgrades go away, do you?
Click to expand...

Google fiber can't get here soon enough.

As far as prices going up, the ones around here have actually been going down when you look at the speed tiers. I used to pay about 54 for 30Mb. Now I am paying 58 for 60Mb. Both with no data cap.

The companies are scared out of their minds and have been upgrading their speeds as well. Highest I can currently get is 600Mb, but I am not about to pay the price for that.
 
i havent paid for or watched tv in a few years, we only turn on the tv when her dad comes to visit. anything i want to watch i either stream or download.
 
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