Children Are Leading The Cord Cutting Revolution

from the mikey-doesn't-like-it dept

The cable industry has long pretended that the cord cutting phenomenon either isn't real or that the only people cutting the cord are aging losers living in their parents' basement. Of course when you actually look at the data, while cord cutting remains a slow but growing phenomenon, most of the cord cutters are young, highly educated, employed, and make a good amount of money. As it turns out, you'll be surprised to note these folks are having children -- and these children are also starting to prefer on demand, a la carte services like Netflix instead of traditional cable.

For a few years now data has shown that Netflix is really eating the lunch of channels like Nickelodeon, given that toddlers in particular don't really care if they're watching the latest and greatest "True Detective" episode or not, and time shifting is important for parents on hectic schedules. A new research note from Bernstein Research notes that not only is viewership down for both cable and over the air broadcasts (8 and 9%, respectively, for the week of November 17 through 23), but it's dropping significantly for children's programming, which saw a 12% drop during that same period.

The numbers get worse quarter over quarter, where kid's programming saw a 15% drop. In fact the only growing cable viewership audience that week was the predominately-older Fox News audience, which had tuned in to Fox's live Ferguson coverage. Kids and parents, in contrast, just want the simplest, most enjoyable content experience on their own terms:

"A 5-year-old is probably less concerned with seeing the latest Spongebob Squarepants, compared to just reruns of that show," said Brett Harriss, a media analyst at Gabelli & Company. Nickelodeon and Disney Channel viewership fell 25% and 24% respectively, according to the Bernstein report. "For kids' programming it's a unique audience. They're not loyal to any network or channel. It's platform-agnostic," said Amy Yong, an analyst at Macquarie Capital USA Inc."

Of course these kids aren't going to stay young forever, and when they grow up, paying Comcast $150 a month for an ocean of awful reality TV programs and infomercials is going to seem as backward to them as drilling holes in the heads of the mentally ill to let the demons out.

Filed Under: big broadband, broadband, children, cord cutting, tv

Big Cable Wasting Money On Ads That Look Like They're Supporting Internet Slowdown

from the rather-incredible dept

Today, as you may have heard, is Internet Slowdown Day, in which a bunch of folks are calling attention to the fight at the FCC concerning net neutrality. The basic idea -- as you may have seen on this very site -- is to host some "spinning wheel" banners, highlighting the kind of internet that we may have to live with if the big broadband providers get their way and are allowed to set up tollbooths online, picking winners and losers based on who will pay the most. We've been hearing that the big broadband players are a bit nervous about this -- as often seems to happen when it comes to real grassroots efforts. They've attempted to set up some fake grassroots efforts. We've even heard rumors that they've been trying to "infiltrate" planning meetings for Internet Slowdown Day. But this one takes the cake. In response to this campaign, cable's main lobbying arm, NCTA, has launched an advertising campaign that... um... looks kinda like the Internet Slowdown Day campaign, reminding people that they're nervous about Big Cable cutting off access. Here are two of the ads NCTA is currently running:

Of course, if you look at those ads, they actually (1) look like they're a part of Internet Slowdown Day and (2) remind people of exactly what they fear most about Big Cable: the inability to connect to certain sites. No one (and I do mean no one) thinks that, if the FCC implements true open internet rules, they'll suddenly be "unable to connect" to any particular sites. The only place where that's a fear is if the FCC doesn't put in place good rules and allows companies, like the cable companies NCTA represents, to start blocking access to certain sites.

So, either this a case where some ad designer at NCTA is a subversive double agent really helping "Team Internet," or the folks at NCTA and Big Cable are really so buried in their own wonkdom, they don't realize just how much this ad appears to support the other team. Either way, thanks, Big Cable and your lobbyists for highlighting exactly what most of us fear. An internet where we are "unable to connect" to sites because the FCC has killed off net neutrality...

Filed Under: ads, big broadband, cable, failure, internet slowdown, net neutrality, open internet
Companies: ncta