The phenomenon of cord cutting—eschewing traditional cable for online or other alternatives—still seems to be making a dent in the bottom lines of cable providers. According to a new report from Nielsen, the number of U.S. homes paying for a multi-channel cable package declined by 1.5 million in 2011.
Overall, cable providers lost nearly 3 million subscribers, but these losses were somewhat ameliorated by subscriber gains made by AT&T, Verizon, DirecTV and Dish Network.
Another interesting revelation in Nielesn’s report is the fact that the average amount of time per month the average user spent watching traditional TV declined for the first time in recent memory in the fourth quarter of 2011, dropping by about 46 minutes.
How do your viewing habits stack up with Nielsen’s report, Insiders? Are you finding that you’re slowly reducing the amount of regular TV you’re consuming?
[via Paid Content]
I cut the Cable sometime back.. Nothing but crap on anyway.. And with House going very soon. Zip zero! I can watch all like want on Hulu. Netflix online.. And RedBox now and then..
Good Buy Crap Cable!
Interesting,
Didn’t think the decline was this steep in cable, but having dropped cable a couple years ago, would never consider going back with so many better alternatives, and it just keeps getting better as the internet evolves as the all in one entertainment solution and as wireless continues to grow.
I live in Iowa and the local options just don’t provide enough. They are too small and have outdated DVRs that need firmware updates. I have a family member who hasn’t been able to use hers from over a month from Mediacom. I am very happy with Directv with the specials and the new Entertainment package which is a low cost. I did keep cable for internet as it’s the only viable high speed option, but with streaming such as Netflix and Redbox rentals I just have the basic package and only get premium movie channels for very special shows I watch like True Blood and Spartacus and then get rid of them to same money. There’s too many shows not online it’s entirety yet to make me want to keep it. I think Directv is getting it right. It’s about offering premium to those who want it and providing HD channels for the best options. More general channels is not worth the price. I’d rather keep 1 low pckg like the $54.99 they now have that my local cable cannot match.
I cut the cord last summer.. With Netflix, Hulu plus, Crackle, and PlayOn service for my ROKU, I pay $18.00 for all the premium content i want.. Shows on HBO, Showtime, AMC, and TNT, can be downloaded to my computer and streamed through my XBOX 360..The president of HBO is a douche ,because he actually thinks this “Cord Cutting”,is a fluke and will stop,once the economy improves..Lmao
I cut the cord a year ago. It would have been two years ago but my kids convinced my wife that they could not live without pay TV. I made it clear that it was the last year. The cut the cord change has gone without incident and to my knowledge no one has died.
Our current solution for our cutting the cable:
We usually rent a video at Redbox once a week.
I bought an antenna and subscribed to Netflix (which may be going next) & Hulu Plus.
I created an internal webpage so the kids could just click on a specific show i.e. there is a link to the Glee videos on Fox… Additionally, I have a link to http://www.episodecalendar.com to keep track of the shows that I like and when they air but the best feature is the site allows me to mark the shows that I a have seen because some shows air online a month after they originally air.
I have 3 dvd recorders that I use almost everyday recording shows. I can do this with my cable. I am not sure but I don’t think I can do this if I used a satellite dish and my dvd recorders.
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