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Consumers Dropping Pay TV Services

6009 Views 25 Replies 16 Participants Last post by  Wayne, 
3
Thats quite a large number, a change of 594,000.

The number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom TV services in the U.S. fell for the first time ever in the second quarter, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

The U.S. multichannel TV market lost 216,000 customers last quarter, vs. a gain of 378,000 a year ago. The total number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom video fell to 100.1 million in the second quarter, SNL Kagan says.
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http://blogs.investors.com/click/index.php/home/60-tech/1867-consumers-dropping-pay-tv-services
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majortom
Yup. signs of the economy I'd say. Surprised it took this long for someone to notice actually. I know if I was unemployed, that'd be the first thing to go.

Edit: And don't forget home sales are nearly at an all time low, despite nearly all time low interest rates.
What's the first thing you do when ya move in to a new house? Hook up the utilities.
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J
Could be the post-transition digital OTA effect (free HD programming and awareness thereof). Or the fact that satellite carriers have been bumping up their advertising. Or that the economy still isn't on track. Or a combination of all factors.

Interesting comments posted to that story!
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O
I think people are finally waking up to the fact that they've been $cammed by the BDU$ for long enough. BDU$ successfully headed up the biggest consummer brainwash of the century into making people believe that OTA doesn't exist. You wouldn't believe how many have said "Oh! What's that antenna thing for. Do antennas still work?" The brainwash into payTV is finally fading. Maybe cell phone service will be next?
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J
Yep. The "brainwashing" is much more pervasive here in Canada than the US. I hope you're right that people are finally beginning to realize that subscription-free options are available...
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N
I remember when cable first came out they didn't have commercials. Now, you can be watching a cable tv show and commercials come on and they last so long you forgot what show you were watching.
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majortom
Not to mention that 1/2 of the first 40 channels or more, where they usually
place the shopping, and religous stuff that noone watches, is available for free on Satellite, so ya KNOW them cable & satellite companies aren't paying a dime to carry those. More like they might even get paid to carry them.
But are quick to pad their channel counts with em in the various packages.
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3
Surprised it took this long for someone to notice actually.
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I think people are finally waking up to the fact that they've been $cammed by the BDU$ for long enough.
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Yep, and even more surprising is 100 million STILL havent woke up. :confused:
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W
OTA is not an option for quite a few of us out there. And contrary to what an earlier poster said, when people are unemployer, it usually not their tv/cigarettes/alcohol budget that is cut out.
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O
In tough times, this is the top 5 order of deletion of unnecessary bills:

#1 cellular/
#2 tv /
#3 internet /
#4 cigarettes /
#5 alcohol /
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N
I assumed the article was for Canada when I saw the title. Although this is good news it's not as good as I thought.
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S
I am thinking of dropping many specialty channels. It's just not worth $20/mo for a couple of new movies and 1 or 2 new HBO series (TMN/MC). I can get better than that from a DVD rental service. I am also paying $25/mo for specialty channels that are mostly reruns with a handful of "new" shows (mostly old US shows that are new in Canada.) Add all the extra fees and taxes and the cost is ridiculous. If I could get some decent OTA here I would scrap cable/satellite altogether and upgrade the DVD rental plan.
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W
Not so fast on the assumption that people are moving away from BDUs and to OTA.

I would guess that more people, particucularly younger folks, are moving to the internet to get their TV shows, not to OTA. That is part of the discussion in the article.

If I wasn't a sports fan I would consider getting rid of cable since rumour has it that you can get most TV shows within minutes of the show ending in HiDef on BitTorrent sites - not that I watch many TV shows, other than sports, anyhow. Plus Americans have more options with sites like Hulu, iTunes, Netflix, etc than we do here in Canada. Hence the move to OTT (Over The Top) video as mentioned in the article. (OTT is defined as video streamed over your internet connection.)
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G
But isn't the PQ better via OTA than the Internet?

I remember a thread about this- surmise to say- the Internet has physical limitations that OTA does not. As such, I'm sticking to OTA for PQ and ease of switching channels, and plenty of content.
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W
goforit said:
But isn't the PQ better via OTA than the Internet?
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For streaming services, yes. For BitTorrent downloads - not much difference. The model is somewhat different however - using OTT is more akin to a VOD service whereas with OTA you are still stuck with following a broadcasters schedule unless you have a PVR but other than using an HTPC there aren't that many OTA PVR solutions, especially in Canada.
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majortom
Most people would go blind if all they did was watch tv on their computer.
Maybe a lil sarcastic but ya get the point. I really don't know anyone that watches
TV on their computer. OTA or otherwise.

I do know people who use Netflix for movies and such though, rather than running to the video store, or paying cable or satellite PPV fees. But not their primary source of TV. They all still have a Cable or Satellite Bill to pay on top.
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D
I'm running into resistance with my wife about dropping the cable. She still wants to watch the cable reality shows like "Real Housewives of New Jersey," "Intervention," and so on.

I've pointed out to her that those shows are available on Hulu.com. Using software from playon.tv, we can stream hulu (and a bunch of other stuff) thru our Wii gaming system directly onto our TV.

Between that, Netflix (the streaming movies feature is VERY nice) and the local OTA channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Ion, My Network, 8 PBS stations and the independents), I don't think we're losing anything we care about. And all we'd pay for is about $9.75 per month for Netflix as opposed to the $80.00 or so we're shelling out for cable, a DVR box, and a few HD & premium channels.

But it calls for pressing a few more buttons occasionally, so my wife is still resisting saving $70+ per month...
See less See more
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S
majortom said:
Most people would go blind if all they did was watch tv on their computer.
Maybe a lil sarcastic but ya get the point. I really don't know anyone that watches
TV on their computer. OTA or otherwise.

I do know people who use Netflix for movies and such though, rather than running to the video store, or paying cable or satellite PPV fees. But not their primary source of TV. They all still have a Cable or Satellite Bill to pay on top.
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You realize that it is quite easy to connect a computer to a TV right?

They even make quite a few that are designed to be used as set top boxes. You can easilly purchase an Acer Revo, Dell Zino, Mac Mini, Apple TV, etc, connect it to a TV, have it automatically download new episodes of your favourite show through torrents or newsgroups and then use XBMC, Boxee or Plex with a beautiful interface to catalogue and index your Movies and TV shows and even download synopses of each show or movie. Not to mention that these programs also allow you to stream from individual network sites or Hulu right to the box and right to your TV.

Will be nice when some company puts out an official product that can compete legally.
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M
I really don't know anyone that watches
TV on their computer. OTA or otherwise.
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Home Theatre Personal Computer (HTPC) and Media Extenders

Lots of us watch TV exclusively on our computers.
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M
The point is the vast majority of tv watchers don't watch tv using their computers.

Your average consumer wants to be able to able to flip on the idiot box (and cable/satellite box as applicable) and watch. No fiddling with software, no worrying about whether their internet connection is fast enough, no worrying about download caps or throttling.
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