Published on May 13th, 2015 | by Guest

5 Things We Can Learn From Cord Cutters

It is a pretty uncertain time for TV providers as a growing number of consumers choose to ‘cut the cord‘ and abandon their cable and satellite subscriptions in favour of using online streaming services instead. This has pushed TV providers to look at ways to try and keep customers. However, despite increasing numbers, should TV providers be particularly worried? Let’s take a look at 5 things that can be learned from these so called cord cutters.

Cord Cutting Is On The Increase
One thing that is apparent is that cord cutters (people cancelling their TV subscriptions) are definitely on the increase. Statistics show that America’s 13 largest TV providers lost around 125,000 subscribers in 2014, after losing 95,000 the previous year.
TV Providers Should Be Less Worried About Cutters & More Worried About Those Who Never Subscribed In The First Place!
It has been suggested that the problem TV providers need to be concerning themselves with is not actually the relatively small percentage of people cancelling their subscriptions, but rather the fact that a growing number of households are never signing up to Cable or Satellite TV in the first place. This is stemming from the younger generations moving out of their parents’ homes and not signing up for TV services because they are used to streaming content on their computers. Statistics show that as many as 4.3 million people rely on internet video instead of paying for TV services and that figure is expected to double by the end of 2016. This means that TV providers need to be targeting this younger generation rather than the cord cutters.
Consumers Are More Interested in Broadband Than TV Services
Consumers are now more interested in broadband services than they are in TV services. So much so that many TV providers are actually starting to offer broadband only packages thus transforming themselves into telecom providers rather than just TV providers.

Households With Broadband Are More Likely To Pay For TV – Within Reason
When a household subscribes to broadband, they will generally also subscribe to a TV service like Netflix or Hulu rather than a cable subscription. This indicates that they are not completely opposed to paying for TV services, but they want a lower cost option. Many cable and satellite customers feel that they are paying for large numbers of channels which they have no interest in because they come as part of the package. This has prompted some providers like Verizon to launch ‘skinny’ cable packages offering stripped back bundles including only a selection of channels. This is providing consumers with a better choice of tv and internet packages to suit their budget and preferences.
Cord Cutting Is Not Necessarily Bad For TV Providers
One thing that more and more TV providers are coming to realise is that the trend for cord cutting is not necessarily a bad thing for their business. Providers are beginning to diversify the products that they offer including broadband services, pay per view options and stripped down TV bundles. This is giving them more opportunity to boost profits, despite reports of a growing number of cord cutters.

In conclusion, there is much that can be learned from looking at the number of cord cutters who are cancelling their cable and satellite subscriptions. Despite many alarming reports, cord cutters actually only account for a small percentage of those people not paying for tv services. A bigger issue for TV providers to address is the growing number of young people who are becoming accustomed to streaming their TV content and are therefore never signing up to cable in the first place.

Tags: cable TV, cord, cord cutters, cutters, learn, things, TV