Streaming and Cord-Cutting Take a Toll On the Pay-TV Industry

First time accepted submitter ClarkSchultz writes "Harris Interactive confirms that consumers streaming video content prefer the practice of binge viewing.The news isn't a big shocker to streaming concerns such as Netflix, Amazon, and Redbox Instant which have been mining viewer habits data, but it has an important read-through for broadcasters like CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC. Though ad rates could fall if more viewers wait until series are available for streaming, the payoffs for quality content are proving lush: 1) CBS says it paid $700K per episode for streaming rights to Under the Dome 2) AMC Networks has pointed to Netflix as contributing to the success of Breaking Bad after initial ratings were soft. If streaming wins, who loses? Front and center is the Pay-TV industry. A wave of merger rumors (Charter/Cox/Time Warner Cable/Comcast/Dish Network) indicates the industry knows the trend of subscriber losses to the cord-cutting phenomenon will continue. An online TV initiative from a tech heavyweight like Sony, Apple, Google, or Intel could also disrupt the industry enough to put cable and satellite companies into an even bigger tailspin."

Cut the cord years ago...

[TWX]

...and really don't miss it. We've found that there are so many free options that it doesn't really make sense to pay for TV, especially when there are repositories with large numbers of episodes available, legally, completely free with no ads, and there are other repositories like Crackle with lots of movies and TV shows free with the caveat of having to sit through an ad every little bit.

Last time we had cable, there were ads that we had to sit through. If I'm going to have to see ads, I don't want to pay out-of-pocket for the content.

Best part is, it's easier to turn off the damn TV to go outside or to go do something else when one isn't paying for it and isn't so dependent on a set schedule.

Re:costs

[Anonymous Coward]

Is your contract up?

Don't be so sure. If you made any changes to your service during the initial contract period, you automatically get re-upped for another 2 years.

Free installation? Autmomatic 2 year contract. Added ESPN? Another 2 years. Eliminate something else? 2 more years.

And the customer service people do not tell you. And when you try to cancel, oh, there will be a $300- $400 cancellation fee.

It's not just them - they all do it.

That's why cable and satellite TV providers can all go to Hell for all I care.

cocksuckers

Can we use a phrase other than "cord cutting?"

[es330td]

I don't know where everyone else lives, but I have yet to find a free wireless or wired streaming video capable Internet connection anywhere in the place I live. I use Netflix and Hulu but I still pay a communication utility for Internet access, so while I am not paying that same provider for cable content, it still is not free. All I have done is separate the data access utility from the content provider. Cord cutting is really a misnomer, few (if any) are truly cutting the cord, they just choose to consume content as Internet data rather than TV signal.

H.265 and DSL

[Danathar]

Although it's going to take a couple of years, you can expect H.265 to help DSL big time. I've read and watched several industry talks on H.265 and by far the two biggest things that H.265 will help is mobile/low bandwidth content delivery (DSL users were specifically mentioned) and of course video conferencing.

Figure a DSL user has a downstream capacity of 1 to 1.5Mb/s of downstream capacity. H.265 will make decent 720p over those throughput capacities a reality.

Re:The cablecos have monopolies on cable and inter

[mrchaotica]

The telco/cableco industry owns the FCC [wikipedia.org], which is why cablecos are now allowed to encrypt basic cable and force everyone to extra-cost rented boxes (or put them through hell if they have the audacity to ask for a CableCard so they can use their own equipment).