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400,000 American Homes Have Dumped Pay TV This Year
redkemper writes "More than 400,000 American homes have cut the cord and ditched their cable and satellite pay-TV services since the start of 2012. The figure includes 169,000 subscribers shed by Time Warner Cable last quarter, marking the service provider's tenth consecutive quarter of customer losses. It also includes the 52,000 net subscribers DirecTV lost this past quarter, and 176,000 customers who left Comcast."
Usenet + SAB + Sickbeard = I'm satisfied
No, they'll see it as a reason to lobby the government to prop up their failing business model, just like every other business model disrupted by the Internet.
Me neither. I gave it up years ago and found better things to do with my time.
If supermarkets worked like Cable TV you'd have your cereal sealed into the same container as hamburgers, frozen peas, a pound of apples, two candy bars, six loaves of bread, and you'd be forced to buy the whole container even if the only thing you wanted was that one brand of cereal.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I've found that I'm much happier, more productive, and better entertained when the option of idly watching whatever is on the air is removed. Even though it's something for nothing, watching it wastes time that would have been put to better use watching shows I'm actually interested in or engaging in some other form of entertainment that I enjoy more (e.g. plowing through my backlog of games, reading a nice novel, finding a friend who I haven't seen in awhile to grab an impromptu dinner with). That's why I unplugged it: to enjoy things I like better more often.
And nothing of value was lost.
Well many cable TV providers are fighting this trend by offering free service to people who want to leave. Why would they do this?
Well, I can answer that by describing the reason why I get free bicycle magazines. I bought a bicycle a couple of years ago...a really nice one. With it, I was given a trial subscription to a cycling magazine. Nice, but not worth paying for... I would look at it if I had it, but wouldn't buy it. But that's why I got it for free. Initially, I started getting "your subscriiption is going to expire!" notices. Then I got "last issue!" notices. Then I got more magazines after that. But why? Well, the magazines are full of ads. And those ads are worthless if they can't show the advertisers they have subscribers.
Now, let's look at cable TV... lots of ads... ads which are worthless if they don't have subscribers.
At-least watch Olympics
Why do I need to watch a corporate orgy of sponsorship and advertising where the public foots the bill and they take profit?
So I can see which individual blessed with the right genes and the most funding can run faster or jump higher?
I'd rather watch a Coke commercial. At least its not pretending to be something its not, and it usually has good production values.
I thought the Olympics WERE a Coke commercial.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!