Commentary
Are We Really Ready to Cut the Cord and Move On? Doing The Math
- by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, October 12, 2010
I don't think I am alone in admitting that my attachment to my cable box is increasingly irrational. If I do the raw math, I am spending so little time now with live TV that I should be looking for ways to fill in with Web-based programming whatever I might lose if I cut the cord. I am pretty much down to news and Letterman. Otherwise it is DVDs, Netflix through one of the game or streaming media boxes and Apple TV rentals. Alas the browsers on the game boxes are just awful, so I couldn't rely on them to access the CNN feed of news clips and feeds. Otherwise, I am not watching much of anything I couldn't wait to see on a podcast or next-day stream on Hulu Plus or Apple TV.
According to research from Wedbush Securities, more people are approaching my tipping point as well. In a piece this weekend at NY Post, Claire Atkinson interviewed Wedbush analyst James Dix, who says that in a survey of 2,500 consumers, 7% claimed to have canceled even basic cable service. Another 12% say they had cut premium services. At the same time, only 2% had canceled their Internet service.
Dix found that the fault lines for cord cutting may cut across age and conform more to income. Only 3% of households with $100,000 of annual income were canceling basic cable compared to 8% of households with income under $50,000. The big threat to cable is coming up, if the survey is any indication. More than a fifth of respondents in the lower income brackets said they intended on canceling basic cable in the next year.
Well, maybe. I think it is an emotional thing on top of everything else. I am among those old enough to recall pre-cable days: three networks, three local stations, public TV, and a batch of UHF oddities in the New York market. For this mediaholic kid the cable box was magic time. Twenty stations? Are you kidding me? I could stay up all night watching the adorable Martha Quinn and her unctuous prattle between videos on MTV. We were in a new world and we knew it. Watching Conan the Barbarian on HBO so many times (the rotations were pretty tight then) I memorized half of Arnold's grunts.
I know I should be ready. My head tells me I am ready...to cut the cord. But there is a lot of history to that ridiculously overpriced, poorly serviced cable box. Just give me a minute.
Steve Smith is Editorial Director of Events for MediaPost
Try this link to figure out what's available in your address/zip code on FREE Over-The Air ("OTA") TV
http://antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx
and remember the HD transmissions you receive are an order of magntude better picture quality than what cable delivers which is compressed.
Enjoy!
I've been completely without cable for almost two years now and there's not much at all I can't watch.
I do have a Netflix subscription, but nothing else except regular DSL and an antenna.
For my main TV I have a dedicated laptop with a HDMI connection to my 42" flat screen and a wireless remote control and for the smaller flat screen in the bedroom I use a product called PlayOn.tv which gives me almost as big of a selection.
The quality of the streams keeps getting better and better. Even for the hockey games (Go Pens) I can usually find a torrent at a 500-600 Kbps which gives me a picture good enough where I can still follow the puck. I've even been following a little bit of the Russian hockey league lately (go Dinamo Minsk)
What I am not able to do very well is to sit down and surf for something to watch. You can a bit at Netflix or Hulu, but nothing at all like when I had cable. I find myself going to the TV now with a program in mind to watch.
You are not alone in your worry about cutting the cord. I've been cable free for months now and have been enjoying the savings really without sacrifice. I've also been on a bit of a mission to help others do the same.
In order to take some of the fear out of cutting the cord, I've turned it into a bit of a game. Follow along as we go to No Pay-TV Island for some cutting the cord Survivor!
http://www.cuttingthebills.com/2010/09/cut-cord-survival-guide.html
Hope you enjoy it!
I gave up on Cable 4 years ago. IMO The Value is no longer there. I had over 100 Channels that had programming I was not interested in watching. The Quality of the Programming on the few channels I did watch continued to head south with every passing year, with "Reality" Programming replacing higer-quality shows, and the ever-increasing number of obnoxious Commercials being thrust upon us. Seeing what has happened during the last four years, I have no regrets in doing what I did. The Price of Pay TV continues to Climb, Climb, Climb, while the Quality of what you are paying for continues to dive, dive, dive.