Cord cutting is real: Pay TV is losing subscribers

While the cable industry continues to argue that cord cutting, the term used for people canceling their cable subscriptions because they can find the content for free or for less online and via other means, isn't real, a new report is confirming the contrary. It turns out that cable lost more than 500,000 subscribers last quarter but not outright, because many customers switched to satellite and IPTV providers. Nevertheless, the pay TV sector still managed to lose subscribers overall,...

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I would cut off my cable in a nano-second if I could get the sports feeds I want.

Doesn't Xbox offer sports TV?

Why would you switch to satellite? Maybe it's just canada but here Cable is superior in EVERY WAY. It has no downfalls satellite doesn't have.

"Doesn't Xbox offer sports TV?"

Well, first of all you have to have an XBox and I'm a PC gamer.

Also, I'm a fan of several different college and pro teams and so far, there's no online equivalent to see those teams compared to what I can get with cable. And in the condo where I live, we aren't allowed to have satellite dishes, so I'm stuck with cable.

I guess you could say I was WAY ahead of the times... I haven't even owned a TV in the last 5 years... If it's not online it's really no big deal to me... IF and I do mean "IF" the cable company's would finally break up the channel groupings and sell the customer only what they wanted at a fair price they would get a lot of those customers back. The internet isn't going away so they will have to adapt or die... I myself will never go back to cable or sat. TV...

I would cut off our satellite connection for internet, however, Hulu and Netflix are not on the books here in Oz...HINT HINT!

Four months ago a friend of mine posted on facebook how he dropped his cable subscription and only kept the internet portion. Since his post, eight others including myself have done the same. Four more of my friends are waiting till they can get the sporting events they want to see on the internet. I'm curious if my group of friends is just an anomaly...

The same here, I dont actually watch tv for at least a couple of years (Maybe more). Online feeds among others are the way to go.

Good. It's about time. It's beyond me why people are so willing to fork out a subscription to be spoon fed ads every 5-10 mins. They dug their own grave and are continuing to do so by charging such a high subscription fee. Internet video all day.

I would cut off my cable in a second if I could stream as quickly from the internet.

They whine and moan privately, that people are cutting the cable and switching. Yet in public they say nothing is wrong, except all they do is raise prices. Even with Sat, prices I've seen go up at times. Without warning no less.

I've dropped my sat package, years ago because I was overcharged for almost nothing good. Just commercials galore, is all I can see every time watching things. Why do you think I pulled the plug ages ago? Then they rage on about torrents, and how they make a huge impact on things too. Well I for one want them to bring back shows, that actually were enjoyable years ago!

Sorry anyone who loves these pointless shows, the whole range of shows are rehashed too much. Bring something actually worth watching, and I might consider actually watching TV again. Other than that, I'll go download all my old cartoons and such again thanks. Too much money spent on things, that we never want to see in the first place. For barely many channels at all + PVR (since I'm away) it was about $90-100 a month. Sorry guys but that's too much IMO, even cutting back to bare basic channels is too much.

Literally no point sticking around, with cable or sat if nothing worth watching anymore by commercials. You watch pretty much 9 minutes per 30 minute episode, in commercials alone I find. All in the name of a dollar huh? Count me out, I'll wait to find things online instead.

mystic420
on November 18, 2010
5:35 PM I guess you could say I was WAY ahead of the times... I haven't even owned a TV in the last 5 years... If it's not online it's really no big deal to me... IF and I do mean "IF" the cable company's would finally break up the channel groupings and sell the customer only what they wanted at a fair price they would get a lot of those customers back. The internet isn't going away so they will have to adapt or die... I myself will never go back to cable or sat. TV...


Amen

As soon as a respectable sports package is offered somewhere online, I will have to keep my cable TV subscription. That's the ONLY thing keeping me from ditching it.

Let's see, pay $40-100/mo. for a package of channels, most of which I don't want or watch. Or pay $20-40/mo. for 2-3 on-line services and stream only what I want.

Mmm. I don't know what to do.

Maybe the providers should stop fighting ala carte programming and start giving their customers what they want.

It's the prices. A basic package in my area is over 60 bucks - way more than I am willing to pay to watch one or two shows twice a week. Besides that, other forms of entertainment such as online gaming are starting to fill the void, and most networks are broadcasting their shows online now.

The cable companies dug their own graves by upping prices over and over again without really changing the service. People aren't going to pay more when they can get better choice for less.

This, exactly. With ESPN3, I can get my college sports fix but thus far there's no legit online source for real-time NFL. Once that gap is filled, I'll be going streamed shows all the way.

I actually sat down and tried to figure out how I could reduce my cable bill, but I had the absolute minimum package w/ HD & DVR, so I couldn't. If I could get live HD sports coverage (so essentially the big 4 plus ESPN), I'd ditch cable in a second and build a cheap home theater PC to hook up to my HDTV.

@Emil: The XBOX/ESPN thing isn't live sports as far as I know and doesn't include NFL games. It's freaking amazing otherwise, especially if you're a soccer or college football fan.

$100+ a month for hours of commercials and channels of language I don't understand? I cut the cord months ago. Pay $15 a month for internet using PS3 and Torrent for my PC I can watch anything I want including the NFL games and basket ball live or recorded. Movies, tv shows...

invest that money you would be giving to TWC or Cox into a PS3 and a external drive for downloads and save a thousand bucks a year easily.

TV's now come with WiFi using the Google TV apps along with many other freebies and is only going to get better.

Who really watches those lame sitcoms?? nothing but garbage and commercials, why should we have to pay to see commercials??? I would rather pay another $30 NOT to see commercials...

My cable bill is F-ing outrageous. It is about $145 for 3 tvs. I only have extended basic service. I wish I go go satellite or Fios, but neither is an option for me. I live in an apartment and FIOS is not offered in my area.