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Television Businesses The Internet Entertainment Technology

Cord-Cutting Spikes Fivefold In Cable TV's Worst Quarter Ever (fastcompany.com) 156

Posted by BeauHD from the day-of-reckoning dept.
schwit1 quotes a report from Fast Company: Cable's day of reckoning has come. With all the major cable and satellite companies having reported their quarterly numbers, analyst firm MoffettNathanson put together a new cord-cutting report, and things are bad. Pay-TV providers lost an estimated 762,000 pay-TV subscribers over the first three months of this year -- five times more than they lost during the same period last year. To make matters worse, Q1 has historically been a strong season for pay TV.
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Cord-Cutting Spikes Fivefold In Cable TV's Worst Quarter Ever More

Cord-Cutting Spikes Fivefold In Cable TV's Worst Quarter Ever

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  • Fuck Cable (Score:3)

    by chill ( 34294 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @06:22PM (#54357827) Journal

    I think I speak for lot of people when I say fuck Comcast.

    • Comcast had over $20 BILLION in revenue this quarter. I don't think they are worried much.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Of course they aren't worried, they are part of a very small cartel that provides a basically-required service (high speed Internet).

        I am sure they are annoyed that they are losing money on TV, but not worried.

        Be that as it may, to quote an Anonymous Coward of yore:

        If I were stuck in a room with a gun, two bullets, and facing Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, and Comcast....

        I would shoot Comcast. Twice.

    • Not Republicans.

    • Re:Fuck Cable (Score:5, Interesting)

      by lgw ( 121541 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @08:38PM (#54358393) Journal

      Most people hate their cable company. But they stick with it for ESPN.

      To a large extent, the current exodus from Cable is really an exodus from ESPN. Why the sudden shift? ESPN became political. Most hardcore watchers of professional sports are conservative (something like a 65/35 split), so ESPNs decision to hit progressive talking points hard at every opportunity, fire commenters for offending progressives, and so on, was the sort of bone-headed decision only an MBA could make.

      The conservative blog comment section and message boards I read have been growing in anger over this for more than a year now, to the point now I see a constant stream of "you know what, I stopped watching $SPORT and I found I didn't miss it. I went and threw the ball with my kid instead - should have been doing that more all along. Goodbye ESPN!"

      • Re:Fuck Cable (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Nethead ( 1563 ) <joe@nethead.com> on Thursday May 04, 2017 @09:38PM (#54358575) Homepage Journal

        I'm not sure if I agree that it's all down to ESPN politics but I will agree that it could be a good percentage of the cause. I'm not much of a sport watcher except for local games so I don't know that demographic that well.

        I haven't bought cable in 10 years because I don't like having to schedule my time around shows or pay for a DVR, and the main reason is commercials. When I travel for work and alone I hardly ever turn on the TV unless there is some breaking news or something that could directly effect me.

        I did buy a nice Roko TV on Amazon for a steal and paid for Netflix. It's perfect for when I need some down time on the couch. One tenth the cost of cable and I can retire it when I wish. I have Amazon Prime too for the shipping and Kindle services so there is all that content too.

        You're spot on with the last remark, get out and do something with the people you love. You're not going to be on your death bed saying I wish I could hang on for the next season of Doctor Who. (Okay, I might say that.) But really, live your life, not some writer's idea of one.

      • ESPN has been going down hill rapidly.

        For me the last straws were -- firing most of the NFL crew last year and then firing Trent Dilfer this year.

        Secondarily, they have fired their most experienced hosts of Sportscenter, so that we now have useless children telling us about sports.

        Ease up on the gasoline, ESPN, if you want that bonfire to ever go out.

  • No surprise really (Score:3)

    by danomac ( 1032160 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @06:22PM (#54357831)

    Back in the 90s when I had a ton of channels for $25 it wasn't a big deal. Now that same package is $100 or more. Considering a lot of channels duplicate content as it is, people are just tired of paying through the nose for it.

    Add to that youtube/chromecast/etc and OTA in most major centres... well, there's just no reason to pay that much for TV.

  • Whoopdedo. (Score:5, Funny)

    by sims 2 ( 994794 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @06:25PM (#54357835)

    They don't need to change their business plans they just need more ads! And more forced bundling! No a la carte! People won't cancel their cable if it makes their internet cost more than having internet and cable! /s

    • They don't even need to do full-blown a-la-carte... they could just offer their mid & top-tier packages for $20-25/month less without losing a cent by making ESPN, the regional sports networks, and local OTA channels optional & passing along their actual savings to customers who exclude them. I have a perfectly good antenna & HDHomeRun (and would get a Cablecard-compatible HDHR-Prime if I got cable) with Windows Media Center as my DVR, so there's no reason I should have to pay an extra $5-10/mon

    • Like most modern aggressive business strategies, the cable companies' policies work in the short to medium term - but trading your customers' good will for profit isn't sustainable. It doesn't matter what barrel you think you have your customers over, sooner or later an alternative will come up and then the customers you have been bending over will feel not a lick of loyalty.

      However, that being said, there is zero chance they are going to suddenly admit they were wrong and try and actually win customers ba

  • More ads, higher prices (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Moof123 ( 1292134 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @06:25PM (#54357837)

    Dropping revenue means they need to squeeze the remaining schlubs by playing more ads, and increasing monthly fees. No dropping of revenue can be tolerated by these guys.

    I know it will still be years off, but I still welcome their impending demise.

    • You nailed it, Moof123. And they'll probably get some legislation passed to "protect" their market as well.

      I use OTA. Yeah, the ads suck enormously, I know only too well. But I had cable once almost 30 years ago. I just don't want to give them more money.

      Anyhow, I'm expecting the cable companies to get legislation passed that will make using OTA illegal or incredibly expensive by getting a tax imposed on those who use OTA.

      Free market. Yeah, right. The corporations make the laws now and monopolies are consid

  • Channels vs programs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sit1963nz ( 934837 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @06:29PM (#54357849)
    No one actually cares about channels anymore.

    Netflix and the likes has made people realise they watch programs, and, even worse for the advertising industry, they watch programs with no advert interruptions.

    I go back to "linearTV" and it just annoys the hell out of me, so it back to Netflix we go.

    • This makes me wonder if there is already a service where I can put in what shows I watch and I can get a minimal cost covering set of services to watch them.

      I supose the worst case if I'm watching less than a couple dozen shows per year is to just buy the dvds.

      • You can buy individual shows on Amazon or iTunes if subscribing to HBO Now or whatever doesn't make sense.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by torkus ( 1133985 )

        Jailbroken firestick for one
        bit torrent is another ... or did you not want to include piracy (arrrr)? :)

  • Cost (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @06:30PM (#54357857)
    I can't afford cable, so first chance I got I cancelled it. My internet is $80/mo no matter what I do. After that they start getting nervous that I'm gonna buy a cell phone with HDMI out and watch Netflix that way. Last I had cable (for my kid to watch shows so she could chat with her friends about 'em) it was $80/mo from Dish and they were set to raise it to $100 soon. Sorry folks, after 20 years of stagnant wages I can't blow that kinda money on TV. Netflix is less than 1/10th that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      Netflix is less than 1/10th that.

      But is it still significantly cheaper once you've added CBS All Access, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Seeso? Or once you add a season ticket to your local minor league ice hockey team to make up for the lack of NBCSN?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by geekd ( 14774 )

        We canceled cable about 6 months ago. We have SlingTV (and pay extra for the sports package during NFL season), Netflix, Hulu+ and HBO. All those together are still cheaper than cable was.

        Even better, we cancel HBO when there's not a series on that we watch, and it's a simple matter of a website click. When it's time to turn it back on, same thing.

        With the addition of a $30 digital antenna, there is nothing we used to watch that we can't get now.

      • Not if you did them all at once, but you could rotate through them in succession and binge the shows of interest. We only maintain a monthly subscription for Netflix and Amazon Prime (although the latter not really for the video feed). The others are just a 'free monthly trial' binge away.

        • you could rotate through them in succession and binge the shows of interest.

          Which I guess is part of the rationale behind the 12-month minimum for Prime.

          • Do they do that for the video-only membership, too? We mostly have it for the shipping and so on, although lately I've been becoming increasingly unenthusiastic about the competitiveness of their pricing on many things. I think they're beginning to switch to sinister phase II of operations, depending on my learned aversion to going to a physical store now that so many of the latter are gone.
      • Speaking for myself:

        * We already had Amazon Prime while we had paid cable, partly for the including video streaming content but largely because of the free shipping and my wife's addiction to Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Music. So it's not "Comcast/DirecTV/Dish" vs. "Amazon Prime + ....", Amazon Prime is already in the budget.
        * We also already had Netflix while we had paid television, for Daredevil and Orange Is the New Black and a selection of kid shows. So again, it's not "Comcast/DirecTV/Dish" vs. "

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tepples ( 727027 )

          You don't need Prime for free shipping on Amazon if you wait until your order total reaches $35 [amazon.com] before submitting the order.

          The paid television services bury you in bullshit, the advertised price has no relation to what the bill is

          Doesn't subscribing to Internet access in the first place bury you in exactly the same bullshit?

          • My internet access bill from Comcast only has one headache that I have to battle every few years: they periodically add a modem rental fee even though I own my own cable modem. Otherwise the bill is very simple, one charge for $87.50 (for 200 Mbit down, 10 Mbit up).

            If you look at a Comcast, DirecTV, or Dish Network television brochure they advertise specific prices in bright colors. But the fine print adds a local network fee, a sports fee, an equipment rental fee, and a DVR service fee. They also charg
      • I don't know anyone who pays for ANY of that besides amazon prime, any prime is not for the TV.

      • But is it still significantly cheaper once you've added CBS All Access, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Seeso?

        Probably not, but if your such a heavy TV viewer that you feel the need to subscribe to all the services, then why in the world would you cut the cable? Cable makes total sense for those people.

        But most people (in my experience) don't have such heavy habits, and for those people, cable TV makes no economic sense. The only thing that's changed is that more of those people no longer need to pay for the full banquet when all they want is a couple of slices of the roast.

    • Netflix does not even close to the coverage you get from a full service cable package.

      There is always someone in my household who likes politics. So we gotta have CNN. Fox, BBC, MSNBC, OneAmerica, etc. There is always someone who likes movies and shows, so we gotta have AMC, FX, HBO, Cinemax, at very least. There are people who enjoy soccer, NBA, winter sports, and Formula 1. So we gotta have pretty much every sports channel. There are people who like cartoons, comedy, travel, nature, pet, and cooking shows

  • Value (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Companies are going to have to justify their cost to continue being in family budgets.

    I recently had a revelation: I was paying more for telecom than any other thing. Between land line phone, cell phone, cable TV, and internet, I was paying almost $500/mo.

    Land line phone is an obvious place to cut, but cable TV is quickly becoming just as redundant.

    I ended up cutting back to basic cable. How long will I keep even that?

    • We cut back our packages/tiers for a year or two, and it would seem like we'd sacrifice channels we liked in return for a lower bill, only to have the cable company hike the rates. After a couple of years of that, I finally said "Fuck it!" and canceled it entirely. It was a bit of a shock at first, since you get so used to the concept of channel surfing, but two years in and I can't imagine ever going back to cable or satellite. Looking back, it was never worth the money.

      • I'm not quite ready to cut the cord yet, but the handwriting is on the wall. I'm watching more on Netflix & Hulu, and less on cable. And the same show is both shorter and more enjoyable on those ad-free services.

        To add insult to injury, I was looking over my expenses the other day, and though cable isn't my biggest expense, it is the biggest expense that I could reasonably cut.

  • There is no reason that cable channels couldn't survive the transition to streaming perfectly well by making it as easy for customers to stream as to watch on air. Set up a consistent verify-with-provider interface that works for all customers, show the same ads online as on the air, and gain new customers with the ability to bingewatch and time-shift.

    But no. There are a lot of networks in my cable tier that don't include my cable provider in their signon list. Those are the ones I have to watch on Kodi, in

    • A lot of my Uverse channels now allow streaming. They have Android apps for HBO, Cinemax, AMC, FX, NBC, Fox, ESPN, etc which show reruns, and the "Uverse" app for showing live content. Moreover, streaming over Uverse app does not count against your cellular data. The only issue I have with all of these streaming apps is that none of them allows to skip the commercials, which serves as a incentive for me to get off myass and go downstairs to the living room where I can see a 40-minute recorded show on the DV

      • Demanding the right to skip commercials is changing the nature of the product, and I have no interest in doing that. All I want is the right to stream any network that supports streaming and is in my cable subscription.

  • And by coincidence (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ESPN just laid off 100 employees [washingtonpost.com] holding on-air or content-producing positions.

  • Who knew? (Score:3)

    by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @07:32PM (#54358123)
    Cable television really sucks? Who knew?

    When the "hot new shows" are Honey BooBoo's mother losing weight for her pedophile boyfriend, and Sassy African American women flashing attitude, over the top flamers, and weird white guys in Alaska and down south, and ESPN is now the 5 people arguing at once and poker channel that by themselves represents around 10 dollars of every bill and a dozen channels selling jewelry- who knew? Cable TV needs ala carte channel selection, and then they might survive, and a lot of worthless shit can go away.

    • I think people are now suffering these days from the embarrassment of riches.

      For a large household, something like our 120USD a month Uverse TV package should be a must. So what do we get?

      Pretty much every movie channel.
      Every news channel
      Every sports channel
      Every pet, travel, cooking, comedy, music, and cartoon channel, and tons of other special interest channels.

      We can watch it live, record on the DVR, or stream the premium channels to a table or phone, often free of data charges.

      In fact, there is so much

  • DROP the price (Score:3)

    by p51d007 ( 656414 ) on Thursday May 04, 2017 @08:04PM (#54358275)
    Maybe if their prices were more in line with REALITY some people would consider it, but when you figure 80% of the channels, NO ONE WATCHES, and the other 20% have some lame shows, and you can get a lot of them online, why bother?

  • Well, at least I can still use my compression tool and RG/6 cable for installing new satellite dishes.

    Oh, wait. Nevermind.

    • Well, at least I can still use my compression tool and RG/6 cable for installing new satellite dishes.

      Oh, wait. Nevermind.

      True story: When Comcast came to wire my house for cable a few years ago, the installer opened a brand-new 1000ft roll of RG6QS with carrier wire, used what he needed to do the drop install, and left the remaining spool behind when he was done. His service truck had about 20 rolls of cable in it. Any chance he got to ditch a spool, he would. It was taking up too much room.

      So I now have 700ft of Comcast-grade RG6QS on a spool. It's quite good stuff.

      The installer did a fine job. I let his boss know an

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kriston ( 7886 )

        It surprises me they use RG-6 when RG-56 was typical the last time I looked (but that was a few years ago). No doubt it's copper-clad steel and not pure copper. Pure copper is expensive stuff. I know because I have a spool of it.

  • I just reached a new deal with Comcast. The prices for my services were way out of control. it pays to call them every few months to see if new deals or bundles are available. It saved me a fortune.

  • Lately Comcast Xfinity has been touting features they think set them apart from the competition. Voice Remote. Being able to watch on-demand on any device, and a few other things.

    But the thing is, never in my entire life have I ever had a desire to TALK to my remote control, and I can't think of a reason, short of losing my mind entirely, that I would ever do that. The idea of uttering "Show me sitcoms" makes me want to die inside.

    I don't know anyone else who has ever wanted this feature, either. But

  • Maybe they will wake up and serve up some a la carte channels.
  • All you need for OTA is a $40 Mediasonic box and a hard drive. VCR functions with one time $120 max. Of course, Tivo and a big hard drive is pretty good too, at a higher price point. I can't watch 'real time' TV either anymore, and that is all there was when I grew up. The kids ? The only time they watch "TV" is when a group wants to watch something together, and then there's a cable from the computer to the 'big screen'
  • Cable would be doing better if they offered channels that showed entertainment, news, sports, etc. instead of one-sided politics masquerading as entertainment, one-sided politics masquerading as news, one-sided politics masquerading as sports, etc. etc. etc.

    • Sounds like you don't watch cable a lot. One-sided politics is mostly on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. There is of course lots of entertainment, news, sports, and movies on the cable. In fact, the cord cutting options don't even come close to replace a full service TV package I receive from Uverse about 120 a month.

      There is always someone in my household who likes politics. So we gotta have CNN. Fox, BBC, MSNBC, OneAmerica, etc. There is always someone who likes movies and shows, so we gotta have AMC, FX, HBO, Cinem

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