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A New Low: Just 46% Of U.S. Households Subscribe To Traditional Cable TV (www.techdirt.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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The “cord cutting” trend cable execs spent a decade claiming was a fad just broke another round of new records. According to Leichtman Research, major cable TV providers lost another 1.7 million subscribers last quarter, as users flock to streaming, over the air TV, TikTok, or, you know, books. Roughly 17,700 customers cut the cord every single day during the second quarter of 2023.

Over the last year (Q2 ’22 to Q2 ’23) the traditional cable TV sector lost a whopping 5,360,000 customers, compared to 4,235,000 customer defections the year earlier. The current number of U.S. households that has a cable connection sits somewhere around 46 percent, down from 73% at the end of 2017.

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Historically, a big cable company like Comcast or Charter wasn’t too hurt by “cord cutting” because it could just jack up the cost of monopolized broadband access. And while that’s still generally true; here too cable giants are seeing increased competition from community broadband (co-ops, utilities, municipalities), 5G home wireless, and phone companies belatedly upgrading to fiber.

Interestingly though, streaming TV providers also wound up losing subscribers, albeit at a much slower rate:

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[–] shalafi 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Mediacom has steadily increased for me, despite no hint of competition. As an ISP upgrades the gear at the headend (CMTS), it just makes sense to offer more and more. Why risk running customers to the competition, even if it's sketchy? Besides, offering the upgraded bandwidth costs them nothing, they already had to pay for updated hardware, and they're constantly working on the cable plant (outdoor infrastructure and last-mile stuff).

Caveat: More often than not you have to call and inquire. Last month I went from 250MB down to 1GB, and $10 off for the next year, just by asking about my bill.

It's really a good idea to call your ISP and phone company once a year or so. No disconnect threats, simply say, "I have some questions about my bill." If the rep has a deal they can throw you, they just hang it out there. Keeps 'em from getting bitched at. (Been there, been bitched, got the T-shirt.)

While we're at it, go buy a modem off eBay for $30 and tell your ISP to drop the rental fee. Make sure it's DOCSIS 3.1 and you're good to go. Go for used, people are always buying new modems to solve issues they think are modem related, and they almost never are. Oh, and grab a $5 modem at the thrift for an emergency backup! Again, make sure it's DOCSIS 3.0 or better (it almost certainly will be). Your ISP may not be able to support 2.0 any longer, not sure about that.

Caveat: Due to requiring "5 nines" reliability for 911 access, ISPs usually (always?) require that you use their gear if you have phone service. That's more a business thing, I doubt many consumers have ISP phones anymore.

SOURCE: Cable internet guy in a past life, in the field and on the phones, Mediacom, Cox and Wide Open West.