1.28 Million US Residents Cut The TV Cord Last Quarter
from the head-in-the-sand dept
It seems like only yesterday that the TV sector was busy insisting that TV cord cutting was a "fiction." Once that claim was proven hollow by the data, plenty of industry folks shifted toward claiming that the trend was being over-hyped and only temporary. Many claimed the trend would reverse itself once the housing markets stabilized (didn't happen) or Millennials started to procreate (didn't happen). Often, angry users who cut the cord (usually due to high prices or terrible customer service) were brushed side by executives and analysts as being irrelevant nobodies.
And while many in the TV sector now like to insist they saw the problem coming all along, it's genuinely embarrassing how many industry execs tried to wish the rise of additional competition away, believing that if they stuck their head deeply enough in terra firma, this major industry trend would just somehow go away.
It's not going away. With 2019's first quarter earnings in the books, data indicates that cord cutting continues to heat up, with another 1.28 million American consumers ditching traditional cable TV in the first quarter alone.
American cable giants like Comcast and Charter Spectrum were hard hit, but not quite as badly as satellite TV providers, who are losing customers in droves:
"Both Charter and Comcast saw their pay TV subscriber losses accelerate this quarter. Charter lost a net 145,000 video subscribers, up from 111,000 one year ago, and Comcast lost a net 121,000 video subscribers, up from 96,000 one year ago.
But it was DirecTV and Dish Network that sustained the most damage. AT&T’s total net video losses during the quarter totaled 627,000 – a net loss of 544,000 traditional video subscribers and 83,000 streaming TV subscribers. Dish lost approximately 266,000 satellite subscribers, a number that was only partially offset by 7,000 added Sling TV subscribers.
The irony here is that companies like AT&T actually saw the cord cutting threat coming and tried to get out ahead of it by offering a streaming service of their own (DirecTV Now). But AT&T's obsession with growth for growth's sake resulted in it paying more than $150 billion on mega mergers (DirecTV in 2015 and Time Warner in 2018) that saddled it with oceans of debt. To pay down this debt, AT&T began imposing annoying rate hikes on its streaming and traditional TV customers alike, only accelerating the defections. Not a brilliant strategy in hindsight.
Those best positioned to fight off the cord cutting threat remain cable giants like Charter Spectrum and Comcast. They've increasingly enjoyed significant regional monopolies over broadband. As a result they've imposed (technically) unnecessary usage caps and overage fees that not only jack up the cost of broadband overall, but punish those users who migrate to streaming with additional monthly costs. In other words, as they lose money on TV from competition, they'll just extract their pound of flesh in the form of higher broadband bills on captive customers stuck in markets with zero meaningful broadband competition.
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Filed Under: broadband, cable, cut the cord, tv
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Dad: “Honey, the cable’s on the fritz again!”
Mom: ‘cuts the tv cord’
Dad: “It’s still on the fritz!”
Son: “They didn’t mean to cut the cord literally”
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Zoidberg-why-not-both dot jpeg
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Re:
We finally did it 2 months ago and that is precisely why.
However Comcast has a monopoly on broadband in our town of 5,000. I really enjoy Karl's articles here, perhaps he could write something about the community broadband movement. I think it's an important thing for consumers.
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Re: Re:
Just sit tight for a bit; LEO satellite broadband is coming.
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Re: Re: Re:
Do they pay you?
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Community broadband, municipal broadband, local loop unbundling
Do you mean like these? https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=municipal+broadband
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Meet the new cord...same as the old cord...
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stuck their head deeply enough in terra firma
stuck their head deeply enough in their asses (ftfy)
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Bold of you to assume cable executives have anuses or otherwise resemble humans.
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Re:
Reptiles have a cloaca.
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Re: Re:
Best part is that some of the reptilians out there are more considerate/empathetic/... than your average cable exec...
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Re:
Beat me to that punchline eh.
Mind you all their visionary visions is hindsight.
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Yep-yep. I did it this quarter... Bye-bye DirecTV/AT&T!
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crapp content as well
"Often, angry users who cut the cord (usually due to high prices or terrible customer service)".... Nothing worth watching as well.
I took my TV to the landfill about 17 yrs ago. It was so much fun pushing the thing off the back of the truck and hearing the thing shatter. And I haven't missed it one bit!
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Re: crapp content as well
Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television
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The dumber America gets, the dumber its entertainment has to get.
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Re: How low can they go!
Limbo low now!
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No one to blame but themselves
The satellite providers continually raised prices and started cutting service.
What did they expect?
Same with the cable companies.
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Re: No one to blame but themselves
You forgot the media folks continually raising prices
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Clearly they've not made unsubscribing hard enough....
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Re:
'To cancel service please send a hand written letter, carried by federally certified pony express riders, containing your name, address, account number, email, phone number, a verified cure for all forms of cancer, a legally certified record of how many times you blinked during the twenty-third of last month, your date of birth...'
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Comcast + Charter pay TV in one quarter (90 days) loses 256 000 customers.
That is 2844 customers every day.
Oooops.
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Irrelevant Nobodies
Not getting political but weren't these Irrelevant Nobodies that were brushed side by industry executives and analysts the same people that elected Trump? Some people refuse to listen and we all pay as a result.
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What is a cord cutter?
Last month we switched from DirectTV to Hulu. Are we cord cutters? If so, then I don't think the term means a whole lot. Our bill and channel lineup is about the same.
If cord cutting means you no longer pay for television, then that probably is a big deal.
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Re: What is a cord cutter?
Yep. You're a cord cutter.
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Re: Re: What is a cord cutter?
Then I don't think the term means a whole lot.
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