Comments on: Big cable is facing an ‘affordability crisis’

By: GNS

GNS — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:52:45 +0000

Another issue is competition for my entertainment/communication dollar. Back in the “old days” I didn’t have to shell out $35/mo for broadband and $50/month for every cell phone in the family. These new modern expenses cause me to look at what CAN I cut. First to go was land line phone. Second was Cable.

http://www.cordcutterguide.com/

By: Ryan Lawler

Ryan Lawler — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:48:21 +0000

Really good point. Still, even that model breaks at some point, don’t you think?

By: Ryan Lawler

Ryan Lawler — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:46:56 +0000

James, I’m not implying that all cord cutters are. The point of the post is to illustrate that there’s a huge discrepancy between the number of people who should be able to afford cable and those who today pay for it. When 40 percent of households have little discretionary income but 86 percent subscribe to cable, you have to expect that at some point the number of those who pay for TV will inevitably decline.

By: lvenkatasubbu

lvenkatasubbu — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:56:57 +0000

I was a cord cutter even before I needed to be. It just did not seem right to be paying $40/month for TV programming, when you could watch broadcast TV, and too much TV was a real problem for the kids.

With the FCC mandated switch to digital TV, Malone and his ilk forced a lot of people to cable or satellite pay TV because digital and broadcast were incompatible (i.e. you could not receive a strong enough signal to see anything!). NETFLIX broke the barrier and let people watch as much as they wanted. For another analysis see:-

http://virtual-cto.blogspot.com/2011/08/netflix-meets-grim-reaper.html

By: Cord

Cord — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:11:11 +0000

Good point, Bes. A lot of women know there is something about cable that bugs them, but can’t quite put their finger on the problem….

By: Mukesh Shah

Mukesh Shah — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:37:56 +0000

BEST CORD CUTTER GADGETS-LOGITECH REVUE(BEST GDGTS),PHILIPS MEDIA CONNECT TV AND PLAY ON MEDIA SEVER

By: Mauricio Caro

Mauricio Caro — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:59:31 +0000

Same here. My earnings are in the 6 figures but also got tired of paying so much for so little. I cut my cord 4 months ago and am very happy with Netflix and the options XBox offers. I think I may have to go back though when the NBA season starts. No good option to get around that one…. I wish there were.

By: Bes

Bes — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:57:12 +0000

Another “man’s eye view”. However as college kids leave home and establish their own households most of them are not signing up for cable. So Cable is losing the young subscribers, who are most likely to have high lifetime incomes. Also the age old practice of spending pennies on “women’s content” while spending mega dollars on men’s entertainment” is going to bite them in the butt. Go to this website. http://www.howcableshouldbe.com/ Chose 5 channels you feel are “men’s content” and add up their cost. Now choose 5 channels you feel are “women’s content” and add up their cost. Women are paying the same cable fee as men and getting screwed. They don’t like the programing provided to them and they don’t care if they lose it. So as soon as women can gain access to programing for their children without paying cable they will be gone. Also cutting the cable relieves women of having to parentally control a bunch of garbage they never wanted in the first place. 52% of the population is female and so it’s not real clear to me that a “man’s eye view” of cable and media is relevant financially. Also “women’s content” is content women will pay to consume. It isn’t relevant what men think of the content.

By: GSP

GSP — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:43:41 +0000

“[Moffett] still believes the average cord cutter is unemployed or poor” – what’s the source of this assumption? To echo many of the posters below, I work in a high-tech industry and cable cutting is definitely a trend here amongst my peers, who could all easily afford cable if they wanted to.

The poor/unemployed people I know are more likely to spend on cable as $100/mo is quite cheap for constant entertainment. But for cash-rich, time-poor people then quality and ease of access is the important issue, which cable fails to provide.

By: Will White

Will White — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:13:05 +0000

I make a good deal of money, and I still have cable. But only because I’m lazy. I use Netflix almost exclusively. I just don’t have time to tivo programs and end up with a huge backlog … i find it much more enjoyable to go through binges of slightly older programming on demand. Currently I’m working my way through the Battle Star Galactica series …