2016 was a great year for cord cutters but a bad one for cable executives. In just the fourth quarter of 2016, 427,000 US households went Internet only dropping their TV subscriptions. Compare that to 2015, which saw 395,000 new TV subscribers in the same time period.
A lot of this has to do with changing American viewing habits and how easy it is to stream content online. Now Americans have a wide range of live TV streaming services to replace cable with—from Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and DIRECTV NOW to new services coming from companies such as Hulu and YouTube—which will make cutting the cord even easier.
You are already seeing the impact of this change. This week it was reported that Comcast will be releasing a live TV streaming service to take on similar services from its competitors Dish and AT&T.
You also see it in the dropping revenues at channels such as ESPN, which are being forced to cut back costs because they will make millions less in 2017 than they did in 2016 and 2015.
Reports also suggest that the number of Internet-only homes is expected to skyrocket over the next 4 years; however, no one knows what the market will look like in 4 years, especially considering that just 4 years ago most people said cord cutting was not even happening.
Source: FierceCable
Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news, tips, and reviews.
Need cord cutting tech support? Join our new Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.