Pay-TV providers see first yearly customer loss

[Redfairen]

Americans may be falling out of love with pay-TV for good. U.S. multichannel TV providers, including cable TV operators, posted their first full-year decline in subscriptions last year, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

About 100 million subscribers still pay $30 or more per month to receive pay-TV but the total fell by about 251,000 in 2013, continuing a downward trend that has worried cable executives for years. The industry added 40,000 video subscribers in the fourth quarter, slightly weaker than the year-earlier period and not enough to offset the losses in earlier months.

Rising prices, pay-TV operators' poor customer service, enhanced offerings from video streamers and other online distractions are pushing more TV watchers to ditch their monthly cable bills. Until 2013, the industry has been able to maintain its year-over-year growth despite the defections, as legions of customers still enjoy its easy-navigation tools and live programming.

But the full-year decline is a worrisome development that could signal an irrevocable downturn for the video segment of the industry that is scrambling to upgrade options to retain customers.

"While seasonally driven quarterly declines have become routine for industry watchers, the annual dip illustrates longer-term downward pressure even as economic conditions gradually improve," SNL's report said.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/03/19/pay-tv-2013-customer-loss/6628769/

[tsuki]

1. I would be interested to see the demographics on this. nt

[davidpdx]

3. It would

I'd bet it's the younger people who are opting out of cable and using newer technology.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. So would I

Of my three children, none have traditional cable TV, and neither does anyone in their respective circles of friends. Last week, I asked a 20-something woman at an electronics store if she had cable: 'no'. Did she know anyone who had cable?: 'my parents'.

[davidpdx]

7. I just remembered I have access to Euromonitor and one other research database

as a doctoral student. I'll go see what I can dig up.

[Cirque du So-What]

9. I bet you find data that support this supposition

My limited empirical data suggest that millennials find traditional cable quite '20th century.'

[joeglow3]

32. Be interesting to see what tv looks like in 30 years

Everyone quits paying for it and it goes away.

[workinclasszero]

12. I'm late 50's

We have a Chromecast stick, Netflix plus roku's plus OTA free TV in Hi Def and of course the internets.

[davidpdx]

14. I'm early 40s and outside the US

I'll give you one guess how I get my content.

[tsuki]

30. I am in my late 60s. I don't have cable or satellite, but

most of my friends do. Son is in his mid-thirties. He and most of his friends do not have cable. I think cable is literally and figuratively dying.

[CBGLuthier]

2. 120 bucks a month to get one or two channels worth anything

We cut the cord years ago. The only channel I even remotely miss is Turner Classic Movies. Cable news is diseased and bad for everyone. Most of the channels make the stupidest programs, you pay for it, and it is still full of commercials.

I have read today about Nat Geo's new slate of programs including You Can't Lick Your Elbow. Wow, how anthropological.


I have Netflix for the movies and Huluplus for the Daily Show and one hell of a lot of content. Total cost a month is less than 25 bucks.

[hatrack]

10. My Dad pays something like $35 a month for basic cable . . .

And it's just plain crap. They raised prices once too often for him, and he'd finally had enough and went down to entry-level.

I tried encouraging him to go whole hog and get rid of the damned thing, but w/o success (alas!).

[davidpdx]

4. Not surprising at all

With the industry being a near monopoly they can raise rates and offer shitty service. Here in Korea the cable companies are pretty competitive. We pay $45 a month for cable, internet, and a phone.

[Vashta Nerada]

6. Cable providers need to let customers choose what channels they want.

Why should I have to pay $75/month for 3975349875349 sports channels I'll never watch?

[jeff47]

20. They'd like to.

It's the folks behind all those channels that want to force you to buy them all. It's extremely hard to get the cable companies to carry a new channel. But if you threaten to yank ESPN unless the cable company carries ESPN Deportes 7, the cable company will carry ESPN Deportes 7.

ESPN (Or Disney, or whomever) is hoping that they'll pick up a few viewers for their new channel just by having it available. They assume many fewer people will watch if they have to explicitly buy the new channel.

Though it's not like the cable companies are angels on this subject. They want a-la-carte channels so that they can charge you more. "Now instead of $75 for a bunch of stuff you don't want, it's $70 for the 4 channels you do want! Oh, you want a 5th? Now you're $80/mo."

[alittlelark]

8. I dropped Comcast last month

I had a bundled pkg for $135 mo w/o premium channels...ridiculous. Got an internet provider for $20 mo and dropped TV and phone. Not missing any of it.

[workinclasszero]

11. Anyone still paying 100 plus dollars a month or way more in many cases..

Last edited Thu Mar 20, 2014, 10:07 AM - Edit history (1)

for cable/satellite TV is nuts or just has lots of excess money to burn. We cut the cable years ago and I don't miss it one bit.

99% of the content is pure garbage and there is so much online to watch. PBS has a huge library of shows for instance.

http://video.pbs.org/programs/

YouTube has tons of stuff too.

The only reason more people don't abandon pay TV is live sports but screw it its not worth the asking price to me and my family.

[MADem]

26. No money to burn, here--just a house full of TV addicts with varied tastes.

On a per person basis, it's not so bad. Of course it would be better if I weren't paying the bill!

It's cheaper than taking everyone out to the movies.

[bullwinkle428]

27. $124/month, although that also includes high-speed Internet service.

I'd have to continue to pay them for that Internet service even if I dropped the TV service, as they're the only provider for that in my area.

[davidpdx]

13. Here's a little more to back up the article

I can't link to this because it is behind a pay wall in Euromonitor. Some are a bit old, but interesting.

Video streaming accounts for the bulk of internet data (November 2013)
Online video streaming services, ranging from free ones like YouTube to the subscription-based Netflix, continue to grow in popularity in the USA. According to the Global Internet Phenomena Report, which was published by Canadian company Sandvine, which makes networking equipment, these two websites accounted for just over half of data use over landline internet connections in North America during mid-2013.
YouTube was found to account for 31.6% of the total, with Netflix accounting for a further 18.6%. Data transfers via P2P (peer-to-peer) networks (often illegal downloads of media content, such as films and TV series) were found to account for less than 10% of the total, a significant decrease over previous years.

Cord-cutters abandon cable and satellite to watch TV online (August 2012)
So-called “cord cutting” is becoming increasingly common in the USA. Cord-cutters are people who cancel their cable/satellite TV subscriptions because they are happy to watch all of their favourite programmes online. According to the Convergence Consulting Group, a million people cancelled their cable or satellite TV subscriptions in 2011, opting instead to view films and TV shows online via such services as Netflix, Hulu Plus and Apple TV. Between 2008 and 2011, a total of 2.65 million people cancelled their subscriptions, it said. According to media expert and blogger Enrique Dans, “Those choosing cord-cutting are no longer people who need to save money in the context of economic crisis, but sophisticated consumers who are looking for another way to access their preferred content.”

[JNelson6563]

15. I'm one of them.

I still subscribe for internet but no TV. Of course if you get both services the TV would only add a few bucks a month but the TV content is shit, never anything I want to watch and yeah, that's a few bucks less I send to those fuckers each month.

Julie

[geomon666]

16. Haven't had cable television for 7 years

And if Google Fiber ever comes to my neighborhood, Comcast will lose that money too.

[yeoman6987]

19. Google Fiber?

What is this about?

[jeff47]

21. Google is an ISP in a few cities.

They've run (or bought) fiberoptic cables run to every house, and offer Internet service. Speed is much, much higher than the "traditional" options, and price is usually much, much lower.

https://fiber.google.com/about/

[yeoman6987]

29. Thank you so much!

I really am interested in something besides Verizon Fios. It is ok, but something faster would even be a better option for me.

[davidpdx]

17. The overall numbers I'm seeing

But again I can't link to it:

TV subscribers (in millions):

2017: 94.6 (forecast)

2016: 96.0 (forecast)

2015: 97.2 (forecast)

2014: 98.0 (forecast)

2013: 99.3

2012: 100.8

2011: 100.9

2010: 99.0

Unless they figure out something quick it seems like it could drop quite a bit.

I haven't found a breakdown by demographics yet. Maybe have to post that tomorrow.

[davidpdx]

18. Would you consider replacing you cable TV with a streaming media subscription in 2013?

Another interesting one:

By gender

Females:

29% Strongly agree or agree
59% Disagree or strongly disagree
13% n/a

Males:

32% Strongly agree or agree
58% Disagree or strongly disagree
10% n/a

By age

18-34 41% Strongly agree or agree, 43% Disagree or strongly disagree

35-44 42% Strongly agree or agree, 42% Disagree or strongly disagree

45-54 47% Strongly agree or agree, 40% Disagree or strongly disagree

55+ 59% Strongly agree or agree, 44% Disagree or strongly disagree

(n/a made up the rest of the %)

The numbers for the older people are fairly strong. I have to wonder if my hypothesis about the younger people being the cord cutters is off base. Still looking for numbers.

(Source: Statstica)

[CFLDem]

22. I've considered cutting the cord many times

but it doesn't really make too much sense for my family since internet access is the majority of my bill.

Add in live sports, several other cable shows, and the recording function and it's actually not that bad of a deal.

I certainly blow more money much faster at Wally World or the movie theatre.

[jsr]

23. The majority of what people pay for is trash and should be free

[PasadenaTrudy]

24. They lost me last year

Got rid of DirecTV...got rid of TV period. Plenty to see online and streaming.

[Mariana]

25. The programming absolutely sucks.

It's unbelievable how badly it's deteriorated. It wasn't all that long ago you could find something fairly interesting on some channel almost all the time. There are a (very) few exceptional shows now, but really not enough to make it worth paying for all the rest of the shite.

[corkhead]

28. people are apparently getting tired of subsidizing professional sports whether you watch it or not

[jollyreaper2112]

31. fuck 'em

http://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters

I would wager a good portion of people only have cable at this point because it's part of the HOA.

[LiberalAndProud]

33. If I ever want to watch commercials with occasional program interruptions,

I'll resubscribe. Until then, it's just not worth the money.

[mfcorey1]

34. High prices and poor service. If you have a dish and the weather is cloudy, your service

is interrupted.