

9% have cut cable, another 11% are considering it - mbesto
http://gigaom.com/video/deloitte-cord-cutters/

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a_a_r_o_n
Terrible questions. I don't know if that was due to laziness, ignorance or an
agenda.

"I'm considering canceling my paid TV service, knowing that I can watch
all/most of my favorite TV shows online."

That should be two questions, and the last part after the comma ignores many
other reasons to cut cable, including cost, not watching it enough to justify,
not enough flexibility, etc. You could be cutting cable because the very
product, TV shows, just isn't worth the time.

I cut cable TV years ago, because there's no there there. I cut cable Internet
last year due to cost, and use my building's inferior but free wifi.

"I've recently canceled my paid TV service because I can watch all/most of my
favorite TV shows online."

Same problems.

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jfruh
It would be interesting to see numbers on how often people who tell pollsters
they are "considering" a course of action in a survey actually follow through.
I never know how seriously to take that sort of data. Based on what I know
about how inertia affects most people's decision-making (mine included), I'm
guessing the portion of people who act on their consideration is pretty low.

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devonrt
I cut cable, but now I'm going back to it. Not having cable has been
expensive. For sports, the only viable alternative has been services like NFL
Game Pass and NHL Game Center, both of which clock in at around $250 a season,
and that's just for hockey and football (and BOTH services still have blackout
games). On top of that I pay for a VPN account to get around geographic
restrictions, otherwise both services would be close to useless. Add in a
Netflix subscription on top of it and I'm up to about $700 just to watch
football, hockey and Netflix; I'm still missing out on every other sport and
anything that isn't available on Netflix.

"Cutting the cable" still isn't that viable an option for a lot of people, and
traditional broadcasting and media companies are still very much in control of
most media consumption.

~~~
dmix
I basically stopped following the NBA because there wasn't a pain-free way of
watching it.

I bought the online seasons pass last year. It had a clunky video player and
half the games I wanted to watch were blacked out.

They also had a scumbag cancellation process where the cancel button, that was
buried on the NBA site, mysteriously had a 500 error for over a week and
required talking to 3 different people on the phone.

~~~
devonrt
NHL Game Center is even worse—there is NO online cancellation process and
don't let you cancel your subscription partway through the season. I live in
Canada an pretty much any game that is aired on TSN or TSN2 is blacked out for
me.

Watching sports online could be such a great experience, but most sports
leagues seem to have their hands tied by their traditional broadcasting
contracts unfortunately.

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ck2
Get ready for internet prices to go up for every several percent that quit.

My internet cost has doubled in five years (duopoly city).

~~~
sukuriant
Strangely, my internet speeds have increased, and costs have gone down for me
just in the year I've used the service.

Frontier 35/35, $55 a month.

~~~
pavel_lishin
How many options are available where you live? Costs go down for sure if
there's more than two options to choose from.

~~~
sukuriant
Frontier and Comcast to name two...

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dromidas
Why does the bottom one say 'recently'? I have never owned cable and have
watched all of my media online. I wouldn't consider 14 years ago (When I
graduated highschool and moved out of my mothers house heh) recent... there
should be a check box there for people who are way ahead of the trend
otherwise it is giving an incorrect trend.

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cheald
I cut cable out several years ago, to save money, and have found that rather
than desperately missing it, we just...watch less TV. When we do want to watch
something, there's Hulu or Netflix (in fact, we've had to cut back our
household Netflix usage, as it was threatening to blow our monthly bandwidth
cap!). Sure, they don't have everything, but they certainly have more than
enough to keep me entertained.

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breckinloggins
It's always football that holds me back, which is silly because I'd probably
have more fun watching it with a group of friends at a bar.

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erichocean
I recently added cable, first time I have ever had it or satellite (I'm 34
BTW, and this includes growing up). Prior to that, I had Netflix, Blockbuster
Online, used RedBox, Hulu, Amazon, etc. and bought DVDs and Blu-rays. On the
rare occasion when I needed to watch TV (e.g. for the Olympics), I had an
external antenna box.

We now have AT&T U-Verse, and I must say, I'm loving it. Cost wasn't really an
issue, so we have the "biggest" plan. I just finished watching the first
season of Game of Thrones, and NFL RedZone has made football on Sunday a lot
more productive (and removed the commercials). We've DVR'd a bunch of random
movies that had been on our Netflix queue for what seems like years, using
their handy iOS app (we can even DVR something when we're not at home...)

Bottom line: I'm new to cable and so far, I'm loving it. The cost vs. benefit
analysis, at least for me, means I'll be keeping it.

~~~
dangrossman
It's pretty safe to say that if the cost of the highest cable package is a
non-issue to you, you're in the top 10% of earners in the country. Keep that
in mind.

~~~
erichocean
Is being a high earner really relevant?

My cable package is less per day than the cost of a latte at Starbucks. I
could have gotten this at any point after I started working at 16, when I was
nowhere close to being one of the top 10% of earners in the country.

I'd argue that even the most expensive cable/satellite package is a "non-
issue" to everyone but the bottom quintile .

~~~
dangrossman
The cost of cable is something I've heard everyone I know, every relative,
every acquaintance complain about at some point. A typical high-end cable TV
and internet bundle costs more than most people spend on electricity, heating,
water, sewer, cell or landline phone. Only 61% of American households have
wired cable television service at all.

If that cost doesn't affect you at all (and you think comparing to a daily
latte from Starbucks, something else most people can't afford, is a useful
analogy), yeah, it's something to keep in mind when evaluating this article
and the comments. Your perspective may be a little different than the
respondents.

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sp332
I have 3 1080p displays in my house. None of them are connected to my
satellite box. Two are on my computer (including a 47" TV), and the projector
is connected to a Roku for streaming videos. The satellite is only used for
DVRing shows that we like to watch as a family, and it goes to a smallish TV
in the living room.

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theorique
Why would I cut cable? That's where I get my home internet access...

(Oh, you mean _television_.)

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dieselweasel
I live in a house with two adults (42,31) and five kids (20,17,16,6,4). I
think we cover several different demographics but are pretty typical
otherwise.

Everyone in the house streams their media (Netflix, iTunes, downloaded TV
series). I also pay for a VPN account that gives me unrestricted access to US
and UK media not otherwise available in Canada.

We do still pay for cable but, honestly, it is only used three or four hours a
month for when we're looking for something to act as background noise (and,
even then, we're just as likely to put on Pandora or Spotify).

The one reason that I've been hesitant to cancel cable is because I DO
download TV. It assuages my guilt, somewhat, at what is effectively piracy
because I _could_ get the downloaded content through my cable subscription.

~~~
Santorum
What VPN service do you use that gives you access to both US and UK endpoints?

~~~
dieselweasel
VyperVPN (purchased as part of a package through Giganews). It gives me an
endpoint in the US, UK, France, EU (unspecified) and Hong Kong. It's possible
there are others but I haven't bothered checking in a while.

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dromidas
Why does the bottom one say 'recently'? I have never owned cable and have
watched all of my media online. I wouldn't consider 14 years ago recent...
there should be a check box there for people who are way ahead of the trend
otherwise it is giving an incorrect trend.

