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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...

I live in the Seattle area and just lost all TV connection via Comcast. Is anyone anywhere having similar problems?

A headline and an accompanying photo that went up on the top of the Drudge Report at 6 PM EST on Monday, July 24 grabbed a lot of attention. In bold black caps, the headline read: “MSNBC Wins Week For First Time.” The photo: A smiling Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s #1 prime time host of The Rachel Maddow Show. The link from the Drudge Report headline led directly to MSNBC’s news release, the original of which is also all in caps: “MSNBC Most Watched of All Cable Networks in Weekday Prime for 1st Time in Network History.” Befitting the importance of...

Called today when my temporary discount ran out on Direct TV--bill jumped back up to $105+ a month. Ordered a UHF 80 mile antenna--live between Rochester and Syracuse NY. Probably going to get a rotor as well. Hubby is a football fan, though. . . FREE-DOM!!

“As a business, it is failing,” said CEO of the American Cable Association (ACA), Matthew Polka, during an episode of C-SPAN Communicators this week. “It is very, very difficult for a cable operator in many cases to even break even on the cable side of the business, which is why broadband is so important, giving consumers more of a choice that we can’t give them on cable.”

MSNBC finished first in the key 25-54 demographic and in total viewers against its cable news rivals last week for the first time in its 21-year existence, according to Nielsen Research. Overall, MSNBC finished second in all of basic cable, only falling to TNT, which aired several NBA playoff games.

The pay TV business used to deny that cord-cutting was a thing. It doesn’t make that argument any more. Related: The pay TV business just posted a historically horrible number, at least in terms of subscribers, by losing 762,000 customers in the first three months of 2017. That estimate comes from MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett, one of those people who used to be skeptical about cord-cutting but became a believer a few years ago. He says the industry just had its worst Q1 ever.

I need some cable cutting help. Years ago, we got Dish network, which I am now dumping. I got Sling TV and a Roku box, which works great. I plan/hope to get local channels through a new antenna. I disconnected Dish and mounted and connected my new Channelmaster 45, right where my old antenna was. I live in the burbs, only a few miles from the major broadcast antenna and before we switched to Dish, the old antenna pulled in numerous channels. With the new Channelmaster, I only get a few channels (for you MN folks, I get TPT public...

The television screen went dark a month ago as Daniel Fitzgerald watched “American Pickers” on the History Channel. Perplexed, he grabbed the remote and surfed through CNN, Disney, Comedy Central and the rest of the standard cable lineup. Many of them were gone, too. In their place was a black background with a small block of text advising him that his subscription no longer provided those channels. “I thought, ‘What the hell? I just paid the cable bill,’” Fitzgerald recalled last week in the tiny Lexington [Kentucky] apartment he shares with his disabled 16-year-old son. Fitzgerald called Spectrum, the subsidiary...

Fox Business Network beat rival CNBC in total business-day viewers for the fourth consecutive month in January, according to Nielsen Research. In the busy month leading up to and after the inauguration of President Trump, Fox Business delivered its second-highest-rated month in its 10-year history, only behind the election month of November in 2016.

Looking for advice on finally ditching very expensive Direct TV with hundreds of channels I DON'T watch.

Looks like the media has learned absolutely zero from this election. They are preparing round two to steal the election before the inauguration and when that fails they already have outlined how the next 4 years of coverage are going to be. If there has ever been a time to drop them, it's now. No subscriptions. No more liberal rag papers. No more magazines that tout this crap. Let them fail.

Unsure if you’re ready to take the plunge and cut the cord? The truth is that now is the best time in history to make the call. It seems like every day, there are new reasons to get rid of cable. But in case you aren’t sure what those reasons are, I’ve collected them here, all in one place for you. #1 It’s Easier Than Ever Had you asked me a few years ago if getting rid of cable was feasible, I would have hesitated. But now, well, things are different. It’s easier than it has ever been. All you...

I have been watching OANN as a cord cutter for three weeks and its positive attitude and its willingness to air news even Fox won't air has convinced me that cord cutters need help (I know I do) locating quality, non-cable sources of programming. I plan on a separate vanity about One America News Network, but I think cord cutting is a concept that needs to reach a tipping point. Thoughts?

I am relocating and will be using TWC cable internet for the first time. I'm seeking recommendations for single unit Modem/Router - esp the best "Bang for the Buck" TWC does recommend Netgear N300 and N600 - both offer 300mbs speed. However, it appears the only difference is N600 is "300+300" Dual-Band. I'm not sure if the higher priced "300+300" is worth it or even required as I'll be the only user. Any suggestions or insight is greatly appreciated! newfreep "DRAIN the SWAMP...with extreme prejudice"

WikiLeaks: The sleazy criminal organization dedicated to publishing U.S. secrets may loudly deny its leaks led to the hanging of a man in Iran Tuesday. But that's irrelevant because WikiLeaks gave Tehran the pretext it sought. A 24-year old Iranian man was the latest victim of the mullahs' monstrous tyranny this week, executed as a spy for Israel, supposedly for killing an Iranian nuclear scientist on behalf of his Zionist masters. That's a whiff of the twisted kangaroo court verdicts typical of Iran. In reality, Majid Jamali Fashi was a young kick-boxing instructor who visited Baku, Azerbaijan, for a tournament...

Cord cutting can sound scary at first, with a ton of options and decisions to be made, but you will find it is surprisingly easy and you may already have everything you need. We want to be here to help you cancel cable TV and legally stream your content online so you pay less and still get all your shows. Here are our four steps to becoming a cord cutter with our Cord Cutting 101 guide! Step 1. Streaming Services There are a lot of live streaming services available, and it may seem overwhelming at first but it is easier...

MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show virtually tied Fox’s Megyn Kelly-hosted Kelly File in the key 25-54 demographic on Wednesday, the third time this month in which Maddow has tied or beaten Kelly in the all-important demo as MSNBC viewership has risen steadily through the summer. Kelly’s 9 p.m. primetime show drew 401,000 viewers in the demo Wednesday night, while Maddow’s MSNBC show drew 400,000, according to Adweek‘s Scoreboard.

Cable news is bad. Fox News is the worst. It is, after all, the network that blamed a hoodie for the death of Trayvon Martin and claimed that poor people have it pretty good if they’ve got a refrigerator. We’d all probably be better off if we shut off Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly and watched sports or nature documentaries or talked to our families. This does not have to be a hypothetical. We have the technology in our very own homes to make this dream a reality. Abby, a Slate reader, watched her mother—who’d lived in the United States...

What is the cheapest way to get decent "cable" tv and Internet service in a very rural place, when you only need it a few times a year when there? Has a FReeper solved this problem already? The people going up there will be elderly and/or not at all techie. They just want to turn on a tv and see the regular typical cable channels and they want to surf the web in normal ways as well as use texting etc. The home might be used less than once a month, or even just a few times a year. It...