The “cord cutting” trend cable execs spent a decade claiming was a fad just broke another round of new records. According to Leichtman Research, major cable TV providers lost another 1.7 million subscribers last quarter, as users flock to streaming, over the air TV, TikTok, or, you know, books. Roughly 17,700 customers cut the cord every single day during the second quarter of 2023.
Over the last year (Q2 ’22 to Q2 ’23) the traditional cable TV sector lost a whopping 5,360,000 customers, compared to 4,235,000 customer defections the year earlier. The current number of U.S. households that has a cable connection sits somewhere around 46 percent, down from 73% at the end of 2017.
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Historically, a big cable company like Comcast or Charter wasn’t too hurt by “cord cutting” because it could just jack up the cost of monopolized broadband access. And while that’s still generally true; here too cable giants are seeing increased competition from community broadband (co-ops, utilities, municipalities), 5G home wireless, and phone companies belatedly upgrading to fiber.
Interestingly though, streaming TV providers also wound up losing subscribers, albeit at a much slower rate:
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I’m surprised the percentage is that high.
I have cable TV because Comcast is the only viable ISP in my area (for now) and they simply won’t sell Internet without TV. It’s either both, or deal with slow, spotty internet.
Can’t wait for my city’s fiber rollout to get to my neighborhood.
and they simply won’t sell Internet without TV
too bad antitrust law isn’t enforced on this illegal bundling
They get around it by saying they’re not a monopoly, and they’re not. You’re perfectly free to get satellite internet and enjoy 900ms ping times.
same here. i can pay 120 for cable tv and internet at 250mbps, or 100 for internet that is 50mbps.
but my town is a monopoly. i have zero other internet/cable choices.
Holy crap, that almost double what I pay for a gigabit connection 🫠
I pay just short of $200/mo, same situation, okay internet bundled with cable I never use, alternative is awful internet for not much less. No other options. And I live in a big city. Effective monopolies are hell.
LOL, just commented that you’re free to enjoy satellite’s speed-of-light delays.
Must be a regional thing. Comcast has always had separate cable and intenet packages where I’m at.
They definitely tailor their offers to the market. The minute work on the city network began, Comcast suddenly figured out how to quadruple speeds at a given price.
Pure coincidence, surely!
Spectrum mysteriously upgraded my connection from 50mbs to 300mbs at no extra cost.
My neighborhood should be getting fiber in the next 2-3 years.
Mediacom has steadily increased for me, despite no hint of competition. As an ISP upgrades the gear at the headend (CMTS), it just makes sense to offer more and more. Why risk running customers to the competition, even if it’s sketchy? Besides, offering the upgraded bandwidth costs them nothing, they already had to pay for updated hardware, and they’re constantly working on the cable plant (outdoor infrastructure and last-mile stuff).
Caveat: More often than not you have to call and inquire. Last month I went from 250MB down to 1GB, and $10 off for the next year, just by asking about my bill.
It’s really a good idea to call your ISP and phone company once a year or so. No disconnect threats, simply say, “I have some questions about my bill.” If the rep has a deal they can throw you, they just hang it out there. Keeps 'em from getting bitched at. (Been there, been bitched, got the T-shirt.)
While we’re at it, go buy a modem off eBay for $30 and tell your ISP to drop the rental fee. Make sure it’s DOCSIS 3.1 and you’re good to go. Go for used, people are always buying new modems to solve issues they think are modem related, and they almost never are. Oh, and grab a $5 modem at the thrift for an emergency backup! Again, make sure it’s DOCSIS 3.0 or better (it almost certainly will be). Your ISP may not be able to support 2.0 any longer, not sure about that.
Caveat: Due to requiring “5 nines” reliability for 911 access, ISPs usually (always?) require that you use their gear if you have phone service. That’s more a business thing, I doubt many consumers have ISP phones anymore.
SOURCE: Cable internet guy in a past life, in the field and on the phones, Mediacom, Cox and Wide Open West.
Tailor based on whether there is a market or just their own little local monopoly.
how to quadruple speeds at a given price.
The bill you for the new speed, They will burn you alive before you ever get half of it.
That’s usually a local issue. After a free update to 1GB, I couldn’t get a quarter of that. Updated my modem from DOCSIS 3.0 to 3.1 and doubled speed, but it was still only half. Tech jacked directly into my modem and got full speed, every test. I saw it with my own eyes, and I used to be a field tech.
It was a legit test.Almost every issue I went into a home to investigate turned out to be a problem between the telephone pole (or underground pedestal) and the back of the modem. Even something silly, like the barrel in the wall plate, can make or break a connection.
I suspect my pfSense router isn’t keeping up. It’s a nice Netgate rack unit, but it’s fairly old. Haven’t tweaked on it yet. Also, got some squirrel chews on the arial, need that replaced before I bang my head.
I have Comcast in the US. I am better off sending pigeons.
Yeah, who is watching cable anymore?
old people who have been subscribers forever leave it on while they cook dinner, not really caring about the quality of programming, which is basically just filler anymore
LOL, I’m kinda old (52) and haven’t had cable for 15+ years. If I wanted noise like that, I’d just hook up a cheap HD antenna and get a dozen free stations.
And it’s so stupid easy to stream from your phone/tablet/laptop/whatever to any remotely modern TV, I just can’t get my head around people paying for cable. I guess the sports people still need it?
-Older, more conservative people.
-People who watch sports who are not aware of other options.
-And people who have bundled services and either have to take the bundle.to get decent Internet speeds or who have persuasively priced bundles.
I don’t have cable, but know someone who does. The only reason they still have it is for sports broadcasts.
They must be going crazy hard on sports. Between ESPN+ (bundled with Disney+ and Hulu for $15 or $20 a month), PeacockTV ($6 a month), and Paramount+ ($6 a month) I get quite a bit of live sports thrown in with all that non-sports content for under $40 a month). You may say, but Fox Sports network! Well you can open an incognito window, go over to https://foxsports.com/live, and get an hour for free and you can [Google] Cast (I assume Airplay works but have no Apple devices) it to your TV. Just close the incognito window (all incognito windows for Chromium, not just the tab) and open a new one, your 1 hour starts over!
ESPN+ doesn’t have their cable channels. Peacock and Paramount just stream what you can get free with an antenna.
Its cheaper for me to have TV + Internet than just internet.
This was my first thought as well.
Went over my friends house and there was a movie on the TV on cable. It would have taken 4 hours to watch that movie with the amount of ads they cram in. It was unwatchable. Paying to watch ads? Nah.
This is exactly why I can’t justify paying for cable nowadays, broadband only. Paying to watch ads… Blech
I usually just end up recording them if I really want to watch them so I can fast forward through the commercials when I watch it later.
I’m surprised that there still people are who do.
Yeah, that was my thought as well - I can’t believe it’s so high
Seriously? 46% is so damn high! I have a hard time believing that. Is it just because there are so many baby boomers still out there or what? I can’t imagine paying for commercials. The last time I had cable was 16 years ago.
A lot of those are condos where you get cable and Internet bundles together, and you don’t even have a choice. Others might be getting a bundle but only using the Internet side. I was sick with the first for years.
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My first thought was that it was way too high. I haven’t had cable in… 10 years?
Edit: no, it was more like 15. Holy shit I’m old.
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2002 was the last time my household had cable.
it’s crazy that about 50% pays to watch ads.
I want to watch my local NBA team and would prefer not to pirate it, cable package it is. I get enough odds and ends elsewhere in the package to juuuust justify it.
If it were $10 more a month, though…
I know what will stop the hemorrhaging… raise prices even more and have more commercials!1!!" — Cable TV executive.
Recently my wife and I were talking about which streaming services we should stop paying for and we realized it’s been about 15 years since we “cut the cord.” I remembered because we decided to stop paying for Hulu (among others) and were talking about how when we first discontinued cable we wouldn’t have been able to do so without Hulu.
I just cut off our Hulu with the recent price hike and we also started out with Hulu. We share a family plan for Disney+ and sail the high seas for anything else. Having an OTA antenna with an HD Home run is also a plus.
I’m shocked it’s still that high.
I bet it also fluctuates pretty widely with football season. I only pay for streaming TV for football season and I know many others do too.
There is otherwise absolutely no benefit.
i had cable for reception. live in an area without adequate reception of ‘local’ stations without tall antennas and boosters. had it. they raise the price and raise the price, and move channels to separate ‘tiers’ that cost even more. well, they did it one too many times.
of course two months after, and having gotten used to it not on my bill anymore… they go and do the last bit of the summary in op… they raised the price of internet.
I’m stunned internet costs haven’t exploded through the roof. Cable companies are not going to take a loss like this, quarter after quarter, so where is the money coming from?!
They need their monopoly to survive, which is granted municipality by municipality.
I wonder how many of those 46% were like me at my old apartment.
They included cable tv in the monthly rent so I technically was a household that subscribed but I never once connected my tv to it lol.
