Cord-Cutting Spikes Fivefold In Cable TV's Worst Quarter Ever (fastcompany.com)

schwit1 quotes a report from Fast Company: Cable's day of reckoning has come. With all the major cable and satellite companies having reported their quarterly numbers, analyst firm MoffettNathanson put together a new cord-cutting report, and things are bad. Pay-TV providers lost an estimated 762,000 pay-TV subscribers over the first three months of this year -- five times more than they lost during the same period last year. To make matters worse, Q1 has historically been a strong season for pay TV.

Comments

Fuck Cable

[chill]

I think I speak for lot of people when I say fuck Comcast.

Re:Fuck Cable

[lgw]

Most people hate their cable company. But they stick with it for ESPN.

To a large extent, the current exodus from Cable is really an exodus from ESPN. Why the sudden shift? ESPN became political. Most hardcore watchers of professional sports are conservative (something like a 65/35 split), so ESPNs decision to hit progressive talking points hard at every opportunity, fire commenters for offending progressives, and so on, was the sort of bone-headed decision only an MBA could make.

The conservative blog comment section and message boards I read have been growing in anger over this for more than a year now, to the point now I see a constant stream of "you know what, I stopped watching $SPORT and I found I didn't miss it. I went and threw the ball with my kid instead - should have been doing that more all along. Goodbye ESPN!"

Re:Fuck Cable

[110010001000]

Comcast isn't losing money on TV either. In fact, Comcast added TV subscribers! 80k this quarter.

Re:Fuck Cable

[Nethead]

I'm not sure if I agree that it's all down to ESPN politics but I will agree that it could be a good percentage of the cause. I'm not much of a sport watcher except for local games so I don't know that demographic that well.

I haven't bought cable in 10 years because I don't like having to schedule my time around shows or pay for a DVR, and the main reason is commercials. When I travel for work and alone I hardly ever turn on the TV unless there is some breaking news or something that could directly effect me.

I did buy a nice Roko TV on Amazon for a steal and paid for Netflix. It's perfect for when I need some down time on the couch. One tenth the cost of cable and I can retire it when I wish. I have Amazon Prime too for the shipping and Kindle services so there is all that content too.

You're spot on with the last remark, get out and do something with the people you love. You're not going to be on your death bed saying I wish I could hang on for the next season of Doctor Who. (Okay, I might say that.) But really, live your life, not some writer's idea of one.

Re:Fuck Cable

[speedlaw]

Actually, ESPN was what made me cut the cord. They'd already scrambed the signal...making me rent a box I didn't need prior, to pay for their DRM decisions...I can't believe piracy was a big deal in my area. Kudos for the way they implemented the FCC required clear channel carriage of OTA...by making the virtual channels incomprehensible. So, when the "free" boxes became $8 EACH per month, and then they added a $6 line item "sports fee", I realized that I was basically paying $75 per year for ESPN, a channel I never, ever watch. It was interesting, the long game. Digitize the whole thing, a good idea, but instead of clear QAM, which most TV sets could accept, scramble the whole thing. Get FCC waiver for two years of "free" boxes, then $8 per month in perpetuity. Three TV sets ? (suburban house), $24 x 12... $288.00 per year increase. Add the "sports fee" and $84.00 magically disappears. Oh, and they didn't raise "rates", officially. The OTA antenna, installed (ok, DIY but cable, antenna and parts) worked out to $130...one time. Add Netflix and Amazon Prime....which you'd use anyway.... I now pay $135 per month for broadband, and three landlines-and that is half the price of FiOs, which also runs down the street, for the same service.

No surprise really

[danomac]

Back in the 90s when I had a ton of channels for $25 it wasn't a big deal. Now that same package is $100 or more. Considering a lot of channels duplicate content as it is, people are just tired of paying through the nose for it.

Add to that youtube/chromecast/etc and OTA in most major centres... well, there's just no reason to pay that much for TV.

Re:No surprise really

[Osgeld]

every single channel on cable is 90% reruns, we didnt have cable for a couple years, then we did cause it was just about free with our internet, you would think after a couple years, there was something new to watch

nope first thing I saw once it was hooked up was a show I had already seen, how the fuck do you manage that

Re:No surprise really

[mentil]

Hopefully someone will automate the 'tv show licensing bureaucrats' out of a job, and replace reruns with Bollywood dramas and Japanese gameshows. There's plenty of stuff made around the world that never airs elsewhere that could be replacing the reruns.

Whoopdedo.

[sims 2]

They don't need to change their business plans they just need more ads! And more forced bundling! No a la carte! People won't cancel their cable if it makes their internet cost more than having internet and cable! /s

Re:Whoopdedo.

[Excelcia]

Like most modern aggressive business strategies, the cable companies' policies work in the short to medium term - but trading your customers' good will for profit isn't sustainable. It doesn't matter what barrel you think you have your customers over, sooner or later an alternative will come up and then the customers you have been bending over will feel not a lick of loyalty.

However, that being said, there is zero chance they are going to suddenly admit they were wrong and try and actually win customers back. No, what has (and will continue) to happen is they will continue the aggressive policies and blame the customer. They will blame piracy for the loss of business. They will try and scare people into not downloading shows, and they will become a more and more vocal lobby for more draconian measures to stem what they call piracy.

I have zero sympathy for them. I just wish so many of them weren't also internet providers and in a position to continue the upward trend on those prices.

More ads, higher prices

[Moof123]

Dropping revenue means they need to squeeze the remaining schlubs by playing more ads, and increasing monthly fees. No dropping of revenue can be tolerated by these guys.

I know it will still be years off, but I still welcome their impending demise.

Channels vs programs

[sit1963nz]

No one actually cares about channels anymore.

Netflix and the likes has made people realise they watch programs, and, even worse for the advertising industry, they watch programs with no advert interruptions.

I go back to "linearTV" and it just annoys the hell out of me, so it back to Netflix we go.

Cost

[rsilvergun]

I can't afford cable, so first chance I got I cancelled it. My internet is $80/mo no matter what I do. After that they start getting nervous that I'm gonna buy a cell phone with HDMI out and watch Netflix that way. Last I had cable (for my kid to watch shows so she could chat with her friends about 'em) it was $80/mo from Dish and they were set to raise it to $100 soon. Sorry folks, after 20 years of stagnant wages I can't blow that kinda money on TV. Netflix is less than 1/10th that.

Re:Cost

[geekd]

We canceled cable about 6 months ago. We have SlingTV (and pay extra for the sports package during NFL season), Netflix, Hulu+ and HBO. All those together are still cheaper than cable was.

Even better, we cancel HBO when there's not a series on that we watch, and it's a simple matter of a website click. When it's time to turn it back on, same thing.

With the addition of a $30 digital antenna, there is nothing we used to watch that we can't get now.

Re:Cost

[DuckDodgers]

Speaking for myself:

* We already had Amazon Prime while we had paid cable, partly for the including video streaming content but largely because of the free shipping and my wife's addiction to Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Music. So it's not "Comcast/DirecTV/Dish" vs. "Amazon Prime + ....", Amazon Prime is already in the budget.
* We also already had Netflix while we had paid television, for Daredevil and Orange Is the New Black and a selection of kid shows. So again, it's not "Comcast/DirecTV/Dish" vs. "Netflix + ....", Netflix is already in the budget.
* So all I'm paying for is $400 for a Tivo and $12.50 per month Tivo channel package subscription for our Over-The-Air antenna. We get CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox that way so we can record major sporting events, So You Think You Can Dance, and the main channel shows we like. (Granted, this only works if you live someplace that can receive all four channels by antenna. I do.).

But the crucial thing to me is honest pricing. Amazon Prime, Netflix, Tivo, and for that matter CBS All Access, Sling.tv, Hulu, etc... are straightforward with their prices. The paid television services bury you in bullshit, the advertised price has no relation to what the bill is and after the promotional period expires they will find excuses to jack up the bill a bit at a time every few months forever. The only way to fight it is to set aside an hour or two every six months to waste on the phone with someone getting back your original rates. Since that's never going to change, they're never getting another cent out of me.

Re:Cost

[DuckDodgers]

My internet access bill from Comcast only has one headache that I have to battle every few years: they periodically add a modem rental fee even though I own my own cable modem. Otherwise the bill is very simple, one charge for $87.50 (for 200 Mbit down, 10 Mbit up).

If you look at a Comcast, DirecTV, or Dish Network television brochure they advertise specific prices in bright colors. But the fine print adds a local network fee, a sports fee, an equipment rental fee, and a DVR service fee. They also charge $2-$5 extra per month if you don't use direct debit for your payments. So the $29.99 for the first year is actually $64.99 for the first year and the $59.99 for the second year is actually $94.99 for the second or similar.

And then the immediate month after the two year contract expires, the bill jumps to $117. And then you call to cancel, and they counter by offering better and better deals until they're asking you to pay $52 total per month for another year. So they were charging me $117 when they could profitably charge me $52? No thanks, fucker. I'll never do business with your company again.

Re:estimated?

[ShanghaiBill]

What does direct comcox up your bum not know how many customers they have?

The estimate comes from the analyst, not from comcox.

But the number is meaningless anyway, because many people have cable but never watch it. I am a cable subscriber because it is actually cheaper to subscribe to Internet+TV than to subscribe to just Internet. But I haven't watched live TV in years. I think they give away the TV at less than zero cost so they can quote a higher subscriber number to advertisers.

Who knew?

[Ol Olsoc]

Cable television really sucks? Who knew?

When the "hot new shows" are Honey BooBoo's mother losing weight for her pedophile boyfriend, and Sassy African American women flashing attitude, over the top flamers, and weird white guys in Alaska and down south, and ESPN is now the 5 people arguing at once and poker channel that by themselves represents around 10 dollars of every bill and a dozen channels selling jewelry- who knew? Cable TV needs ala carte channel selection, and then they might survive, and a lot of worthless shit can go away.

DROP the price

[p51d007]

Maybe if their prices were more in line with REALITY some people would consider it, but when you figure 80% of the channels, NO ONE WATCHES, and the other 20% have some lame shows, and you can get a lot of them online, why bother?

Re: estimated?

[ShanghaiBill]

I won't use a service that doesn't offer an ad-free experience. Happy to pay for it, but I won't be forced to watch ads.

Me too. My family went on a trip and my kids turned on the TV in the hotel room. When the first commercial came on, they thought the show was over, and were confused by the ending. I realized then that they had no idea what a "commercial" was.

I spent the next hour explaining my childhood, and how every kid knew all the jingles, like "Coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs" , "I wish I was an Oscar-Meyer Weiner", and "Rice-a-Roni". I told them about Tony the Tiger, Mr Clean, and Cap'n Crunch, but they just rolled their eyes and started watching Youtube on their Chromebooks.

Re: estimated?

[Humbubba]

saloomy said

OTA is terrible, so does Cable. Channels? Ad breaks? Not gonna fly...

The PC in the back records 3 shows at once, and MCE Buddy strips commercials, compresses to a VLC readable format, and nicely organizes them in folders. Long ago, when cable let me record, I had cable TV. When they wouldn't let me do that anymore, I got an antenna.

Used to have Netflix, but I canceled. They kept dropping the stuff I wanted to see, and I got bored watching the remains over and over.

There's still lots to record, and there's the library with years video on big hard drives. Used to have MythTV, but I'm just not into watching everything everywhere anymore. I watch too much TV anyway.

If a new business model offers a better deal, I might change my mind.

Re: estimated?

[Nethead]

Burma Shave.

Re: estimated?

[DuckDodgers]

The killer difference between Netflix and Comcast/DirecTV/Dish Network (the only three I can get at my house) is honest advertising and billing. With Netflix, the price advertised is what you pay, end of story. With the others, the price advertised is a fancy and you have to check your bill carefully every month because they start playing games and introducing fees and package changes. And if you're not willing to call up sales and customer retention departments and chew out some hapless entry level representative every six months, they will keep jacking prices until you're paying $180 per month for something that said "$30 per month" on the original sales brochure.

Re: estimated?

[Gilgaron]

Do you block all the ads on the chromebooks? I know Youtube ads are usually at the beginning of the video but I'd think that analogy would've worked.

Re:Comcast offered me $2 off per month to *add* ca

[torkus]

It's $2 less* now.

*Plus taxes and fees, surcharges, and the not-infrequent misbilling. Also, DVR service is included for 12 out of your 24 month contract and after 12 months bills at $29.95/month plus $19.95/month DVR rental fee. Be prepared to waste 8-12 hours trying to return the DVR and get a (working) normal cable box which will then break and require a service call with a 8AM-8PM window and 3 minute notice of arrival with $150 fee if an adult can't get to the door within 7 seconds of them ringing the bell.

I've been tempted with similar a few times over the decade+ i've not bothered with cable tv...and it's never been worth the hassle.

Re: estimated?

[Opportunist]

There was a movie about this, kinda like a future documentary that has turned reality since.