Another Million Consumers Cut the TV Cord Last Quarter

DSL Reports ^ | Wednesday Aug 09 2017 18:00 EDT | Karl Bode

[tje]

While the rate of cord cutting during the second quarter wasn't quite as aggressively dire as many analysts predicted, the latest wave of TV subscribers lost by the traditional cable TV industry wasn't what you'd call good for the pay TV industry, either. Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson predicts that once tallied, the sector lost about 1 million pay TV subscribers last quarter, with the losses hitting Dish Network, DirectTV, and AT&T particularly hard.

Dish for example lost another 196,000 subscribers on the quarter, and that tally includes the additions seen to the company's Sling TV streaming video services (which Dish refuses to break out specifically to lesson the apparent impact).

[Behind the Blue Wall]

They’re digging their own graves. They can’t help themselves, their lobbyists prevent an end to channel bundling, which would actually help save subscriptions, but they’d rather continue to charge those who haven’t cut the cable yet for channels they don’t want than to keep more subscribers.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Do you ever watch videos on your computer?

[central_va]

Does porn count?

[exit82]

I was one of the million.

Use Roku and various streaming services that are free, and Youtube.

Saving me about $100/mo., getting rid of landline phone and TV from Comcast.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I do watch you tube or other videos I find online. But I don’t have a streaming account with an online service.

[LegendHasIt]

If you live somewhere that you can put up a 6 ft (or preferably larger) satellite dish, look into FTA (Free To Air) Satellite. I’ve been on it alone out at ‘the gulch’ for 6 years, and even when I had cable back at the place in town, I was always glad to get back out here, for better programming.

I can get over 3000 channels between my current C-band and Ku band reception capability (although half + of them are in languages I don’t understand) With a larger dish and better dish location I could increase my reception to probably 5000 channels.

[exit82]

Mine is solar powered but I have to watch it out in the yard and only during daylight.

Mine too--on cloudy days, I only get black and white.

[Gen-X-Dad]

Been cord free for over 4 years. Over the air HDTV antenna for sports, internet streaming services, and the trusty smart phone. My family did not miss a beat adapting to the future. The cable guys are road kill.

[LegendHasIt]

There is still plenty of great FREE programming on C-band.

If you can put your big dish back up you should be pleased with what you can get. Some good stuff on KU too, although I spend 90% of my time on C. And the receivers have gotten much smaller and much more powerful than they used to be.

[donna]

If they would bundle me up a group of nice up beat wholesome channels with no nudity and a Christian point of view (cops who are not crooked, homes with fathers and mothers, etc) I would stick with them. I don't like to spend a lot of time looking for a show to watch so that would work for me.

[LegendHasIt]

If you live somewhere you can put up your own satellite dish, you can provide your husband with enough sports to turn him into a vegetable.

I can even get RAW feeds of hundreds of sporting events From Major league baseball to NASCAR yearly on my modest satellite setup, not to mention the hundreds of network sports events, and other than an initial investment of about $700 and a couple days work, I haven’t paid a dime to anyone for it.

[Mama Shawna]

I have a Roku TV in the bedroom! I know it’s there, but assumed it was just another type of Netflix. So, from what I can tell, if I get a Roku account, I basically don’t need an antennae as long as I have internet, and can get the tv stations I need to watch football? Any maybe a Mariners game every once in a while (when they’re actually PLAYING...haha).

[CodeToad]

We did it. Best move ever. There is much more outside cable.

[Comment Not Approved]

Just got off the phone with Dish. 11 year customer and they gave me the hard sell to try and keep me. Pulled the plug anyway. Between HBO Go and Netflix I don’t have time to click through all the channels I’m NOT watching.

Local channels will come through antenna when I get one mounted.

[Mama Shawna]

Never mind. I think I just answered my own ??? by looking a little more closely at the link you provided. THANK YOU!

[Mama Shawna]

From what I just discovered exploring the Roku site, you can get an all access MLB package from them. You should check it out: https://www.roku.com/whats-on

[Calvin Locke]

The small dishes killed C-band.

Uh, 10" is a pretty small, compared to the satellite tv dishes I see on houses. /s

IIRC, the C-band sats only put out around 4 watts, whereas the sats for the ~20" dishes put out 20+ watts.

[Dragonfly]

Thanks, but MLB will blackout the local team (Mariners) on Roku. That’s a real bummer.

[TheNext]

Youtube has censorship.

Non fiction books are UNCENSORED.

Never owned a TV, it is a poor substitute for 1000s of books.

A big screen would be nice though for computer & internet. But sadly, most homes have their center of focus, this one enormous flashy screen. Family communication drops, power shifts to who owns the remote, and disturbing the peace ... SILENCE IS BANNED, PERMANENTLY.

How can the human mind process when silence is banned?

[usconservative]

I’ve been planning this for quite some time.

Stop planning and do it! You will NOT regret it!

I did it over 5 years ago now and haven't looked back. I put up an HDTV antenna and get stations out of Chicago, Milwaukee, Springfield, IL, South Bend Indiana and more. I have mine on a rotor and can turn it to get literally whatever I want.

I kept my basic internet access and also get Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Between the over-the-air TV antenna, Netflix and Amazon Prime I'm saving about $700 a year by dropping cable TV. Over the last 5 years that's $3,500. That's not chump change!