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There Will Be 22 Million Cord Cutters By 2018, Says Report (dslreports.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the weak-ties dept.

A new report by eMarketer predicts that 22.2 million U.S. adults will have cut the cord on cable, satellite or telco TV service by the end of 2017, which is up 33% over 2016. It also notes that ad investment will expand just 0.5% to $71.65 billion this year, down from the $72.72 billion predicted in the company's original first quarter forecast for 2017. From a report via DSLReports: This year, there will be 22.2 million cord-cutters ages 18 and older, a figure up 33.2% over 2016. That's notably higher than the 15.4 million eMarketer previously estimated. The total number of U.S. adult cord-nevers (users that have never signed up for a traditional cable TV connection) will grow 5.8% this year to 34.4 million. Note that eMarketer's numbers don't include streaming options from the likes of Dish (Sling TV) or AT&T (DirecTV Now), though so far gains in subscribers for these services haven't offset the decline in traditional cable TV subscribers anyway.

3 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. I wouldn't be so sure by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The alternatives are already getting worse than cable.

    Up until now, the alternatives to cable are awesome. Sign up with Netflix and you enjoy a huge variety of shows and movies. For now. Disney already pulled their content out to create their own streaming service. You think it will be long until the various networks do the same?

    In the end, you'll end up with the same ugly shit that cable has become. Only even worse. Now, on cable you get a "basic package" with a handful of channels you can watch and a load of religious, shopping or otherwise unusable channels they mostly add to boast "50 free channels". Want to see show X on channel A? Get package K with 20 new channels, all of them bullshit except the one you want to watch for the one show you want to see.

    And with streaming, it will soon be the same. With Netflix being the "basic package" where you get two old shows that you enjoy to rerun now and then, and with every network creating its own streaming service that you have to get separately and pay extra for, to get the one show that you want to see from the 1000 they "offer".

    I could see that people stop "cutting" the cable when they notice that streaming has become the same kind of bullshit, so why bother?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:I wouldn't be so sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Your worst case for netflix is still better than cable, since I can choose what to watch and when.
      I can also use my netflix when not at home. Not with cable.
      And if netflix becomes too shit I will go back to piracy.
      All of that is infinitely better than the current state of cable.

  2. The cable companies deserve to lose money by kilodelta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why? For years they've been overcharging us because they've lobbied to wreck the regulatory schema. For example Susan Crawford's book "Captive Audience" has a section where she crunches the numbers, net service we pay $30 to $80 for per month, it costs them between $2 and $3 to provide it. I could see tripling or even quadrupling the cost but come on a factor between 10 and 40 is applied. That's just out and out rape.