cord-cutting

Scripps top TV exec Brian Lawlor says retrans-paying cable and satellite subs are down 2%-3%, but that new carriage-fee revenue from OTT skinny bundles should eventually offset the losses. In any event, retrans will grow 15% next year, while net retrans grows in low double digits.

“When ESPN announces that they’re losing subs, or Comcast announces they’re losing subs — that’s a good thing for CBS,” the CBS chief said Thursday morning at Goldman Sachs Communicopia. “These cord-cutters — they’re not disappearing. They’re not… cutting their cord and going into the woods and avoiding television. They’re just going to other services.” “For CBS, this is positive news,” Moonves explained.

The DBS service ended the quarter with 20.856 million subscribers. DirecTV added a net total of 342,000 subscribers in last year’s second quarter, and the 156,000 net loss in this year’s second quarter was by far the worst quarterly sub result for the DBS service since it was bought by AT&T.

Streaming TV has gotten popular as several online services such as Netflix make past seasons of TV shows available for binge-watching, while Hulu offers episodes from the current season. Now, some television companies are balking at giving viewers timely access to shows. The big worry: Making streaming TV too pleasant might encourage viewers to cut back or drop their cable service.

In releasing their fourth quarter and full-year earnings for 2015, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Charter Communications all posted subscriber gains for the past quarter. While it’s common for cable operators to see a bump in subscribers at the end of the year, both Time Warner Cable and Charter — which are planning to merge — posted full year subscriber gains, ending years of declines.

This was the year Wall Street discovered cord-cutting. Media stocks are headed for their first annual decline since 2008 as investors get increasingly wary of the growing number of Americans who drop traditional pay-TV packages, threatening the business model of an entire industry — from cable providers to program producers.

Only 6 in 10 cord-cutters still subscribe to home broadband service — such as DSL, cable Internet or fiber — at all, a Pew Research Center survey released Monday shows. The rest rely primarily on their cellular devices to stream shows and movies. Up to 15% of Americans have cut the cord, joining the 9% who have never had a cable or satellite TV subscription.

A new report says more than 16% have unsubscribed from pay TV over the past year, and 23% say they’ve cut or shaved their pay TV packages. So much for hopes the threat was exaggerated.

Millennials still watch a lot of traditional network and cable TV shows — just increasingly not on traditional linear TV. Yet many viewers aren’t ready to cut the traditional TV cord.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes isn’t giving up on the traditional cable television bundle just yet. “We haven’t seen any tipping point” in cord-cutting by consumers, Bewkes said Tuesday at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. “There’s been a longstanding adoption, habit and loyalty to this set of channels, and they’re getting better.”

More subscribers than ever have dropped pay TV so far this year, five times the previous record high. Though the losses slowed in third quarter, they were still significant, finds SNL Kagan.

An SNL Kagan report released Thursday shows pay TV services lost a record 625,000 subscribers during the second quarter — the biggest quarterly drop ever. The report underscored fears that cord-cutting is gaining momentum and starting to fray the TV industry’s business model.

Media companies’ stocks were getting hammered on Thursday, after earnings reports made clear that many are suffering a major exodus as pay-TV subscribers cut the cord, raising concerns about the long-term outlook for the entire sector.

“Television is a mess,” writes David Einstein, “and I’m not talking about the collapse of Duck Dynasty, but rather the battle taking shape that will determine how we will receive and pay for programs. It’s clear that the oligarchy of cable and satellite companies controlling content delivery is crumbling, and the days of paying for hundreds of channels are coming to an end. What’s unclear is whether cord cutters will save money by paying only for the channels they do watch.”

Thanks to new standalone streaming entrants like HBO, CBS, Sony and Dish Network’s Sling TV, it will become easier than ever for consumers to assemble a suite of online video services that provide many of the benefits of TV — without the high-priced cable subscription. Many of the companies that resisted offering their content online have now capitulated in one form or another, betting that targeting cord-cutters won’t cannibalize their existing businesses. Even if you free yourself from the tyranny of the cable bundle, you’ll still be paying for broadband, of course. Here are some ideas of how to package it:

The pay TV industry contracted in the third quarter at a faster pace than a year earlier, signaling that “cord cutting” is accelerating as more consumers drop cable and satellite-TV connections. The pay-TV industry lost about 179,000 TV customers, a steeper loss from the decline of 83,000 in the year-earlier quarter, according to public company reports and estimates from Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson LLC.

The cord-cutting trend appears to have been stemmed for the time being, at least according to recent MoffettNathanson figures, which show that 2Q pay TV subscriptions fell by only 305,000 — a sizable drop from last year’s second quarter loss of 387,000.

The traditional pay TV market declined across 12 European markets in the first quarter of this year, as online services such as Netflix advance, according to a new study by IHS Technology..

The pros and cons of the digital antenna, Slingbox and other alternatives for viewers looking to watch the TV they love.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision to rule against Aereo, different platforms have been emerging reminding consumers, that Aereo wasn’t the only option. PlayOn, the media server software from MediaMall Technologies that streams online videos to TVs and mobile devices, is encouraging consumers to cut the cord and instead purchase their lifetime service for $69.99 (with a Chromecast included so you can access their service on your TV). PlayOn CEO Jeff Lawrence talks about his Chromecast offering and the state of cord-cutting.

A majority of “cord-cutters” are clearly happier — largely due to less expensive TV alternatives versus traditional pay TV providers. A new study from nScreenMedia says 47% of those interviewed are “pretty happy with the decision” and 37% are “extremely happy.” Just 8% say they are “pretty unhappy” and 9% say “hate it and wish I had service again.”

It’s now possible to stop paying the cable bill and enjoy most, if not all of your favorite programs at great savings. Use this calculator to see if you can save.

In the world of stuff, Tablo is the set top box for people who are really satisfied with less, but would like to get it on their own terms.  This is a device, still in the pre-market phase, that lets you record over the air television but really, that’s it. Tablo. then, is for people who just say no, a little. But that’s a growing number of people who don’t really want to spend a bundle to get a bundle of channels they don’t watch.

The number of Americans jettisoning pay TV is still fairly small — but data clearly shows that cord-cutting is picking up the pace as the cost of cable and satellite TV service continues to climb skyward. The U.S. pay TV sector as a whole lost 316,000 subscribers in the 12 months ending in June, even as the housing market shows signs of recovering, Moffett Research analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a research report Tuesday.

The specter of cord-cutting has finally caught up to American pay TV providers, which have suffered their first net loss of subscribers over a 12-month period, according to an analysis by Leichtman Research Group.

This reporter is tired of his $100-plus satellite bill and has decided to cut the cord and enjoy free, over-the-air television. All it took to get 25 broadcast channels with pristine HD was a $25 set of rabbit ears from Radio Shack. Netflix and Hulu complete the package.

Time Warner Cable Inc, the second largest U.S. cable operator, reported a quarterly profit that missed estimates as the company lost more video subscribers than expected, sending its shares down more than 6% today.

Cable and satellite TV service subscribers may not be cord-cutting or cord-shaving to any degree, according to one study, yet high levels of channel-surfing and growing use of services like Netflix could lead to more problems. Almost 70% say they are “always” or “sometimes” frustrated in trying to find something to watch.

The most intense debate in television today — whether the lure of Netflix and YouTube is causing viewers to disconnect their cable TV service — is likely to intensify after new figures show a slight decline in overall pay TV subscribers in the second quarter.

The most intense debate in television today — whether the lure of Netflix and YouTube is causing viewers to disconnect their cable TV service — is likely to intensify after new figures show a slight decline in overall pay TV subscribers in the second quarter.

A new report released this week by the Convergence Consulting Group finds that 2.65 million Americans canceled cable or satellite subscriptions between 2008 and 2011 in favor of lower-cost Internet subscription services or video platforms.

A growing number of young adults born between 1980 and 1995 — Gen Y — are purchasing over-the-air antennas to watch television programming. Gen Ys are inherently more adept at, and prone to, experimenting with alternative forms of viewing TV content; they are less likely to accept the need to subscribe to subscription-based pay TV once they’re free to make their own decisions about it.

Even as Internet video viewing increases, the vast majority of American households are still paying for cable TV subscriptions and watching most video that way.

Like “stagflation” in the 1970s, we may need a new word to describe the current state of the economy: “decovery.” At least, that’s how it looks from the perspective of household income, the main measure of prosperity and key determinant of consumption patterns. According to two former U.S. Census Bureau officials, household incomes fell further than previously suspected, continuing after the recession supposedly ended.