Last week Netflix announced that in 2021 The Office will be leaving Netflix. Quickly stories started to flood the Internet pushing the idea that this is one more thing that will kill cord cutting.
The main complaint is if you want The Office you will need to get NBC’s new service starting in 2020. The problem here is they are putting a cable mindset on a cord cutting world.
If all you want is The Office, buy it on DVD or buy a season pass on Amazon or iTunes. Right now, full seasons of The Office are going for as little as $3.96 each on eBay. The best part is once you buy it you own it for life with no need to pay for it again.
If you have followed us for any amount of time you should know one of the biggest mistakes is to subscribe to any service—cable or streaming—just for one or two shows. If you pay an extra $10 a month to get a single show you just paid $120 to watch a show. You could have bought several seasons of a show for that price and not have to pay for them again next year.
So, will cord cutting become more expensive now?
The main argument here is the idea that with Disney, NBC, and Apple all launching new streaming services the cost will skyrocket.
The truth is that will only happen if you let it happen. Especially with Disney+ and the new Apple TV+ most of the content there is content you can’t find on cable TV. So, even if you got cable TV you would still need to pay for these streaming services if you wanted to watch their content.
Studies have shown that the average cord cutter pays for less than four streaming services. Many cord cutters have found that they can easily rotate streaming services to give them the content they want.
The idea that most cord cutters pay for all services is just not true. Even if you did subscribe to all of them you could never watch all of the content offered.
Recently we learned that 91% of our readers subscribe to four or fewer services. Over 70% of them subscribe to three or fewer streaming services. Most cord cutters don’t even pay for a live TV streaming service.
So even if you wanted to add a new service like Disney+ at $6.99 a month, you can easily stay under the cost of cable TV. In 2018, it was reported by the research group cg42 that the average cord cutter saves $85 a month. (There have been other studies that suggest that the savings could be as high as $100+ every month, but let’s use the lower number for this argument.) Adding even $10 more to your lineup will still save you money every month.
So, how much are you saving with cord cutting? Do you plan to add any new services this year? Leave us a comment and let us know what you plan to do.
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