Do You See a trend?

Cord Cutting more than doubled in 2015. Here's the year by year tally on reported video subscribers cutting the cord:

2015 - 385,000 subscribers
2014 - 150,000 subscribers
2013 - 100,000 subscribers

Do you see a trend?

Cord-Cutting on Rise at Time Warner

Interesting look at how Time Warner has lost 140,000 residential video customers during the third quarter this year.

What the article doesn't tell you is that even though TW lost those 140,000 subscribers - profits are up in part because they increased the number of residential high speed Internet customers by 8%. People who cut the cord still need a good Internet connection to view Netflix, Hulu and the rest of the over the top content providers.

The real losers from TW losing 140,000 residential video customers are the content providers. That dip in TW subscribers should cost Disney (ABC, ESPN, etc.) well over $1 million a month just in Affiliate Rights fees never mind lost advertising revenue. If this becomes a trend then content companies may start rethinking a la carte pricing as a way to get back some of the cord cutters.

Un-Cutting the Cord

Interesting article by Jeff Bercovici of Forbes on how he's been without cable for 13 years but is about to un-cut the cord. I've been wondering if I could cut the cord but I think watching sports would kill me. The money I'd save on cable - I'd spend at a bar watching the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins.

D-Link's MovieNite

Very good review of D-Link's new low cost ($38) MovieNite media streaming device. The once criticism I'd make about the review is that they miss they key market for this device - the spare TV.

I would say the most likely person to buy this device is a cord-cutter who uses an X-Box, PS3 or other device on their main TV but needs something for their extra TV. X-Box in the living room and MovieNite in the bedroom with Netflix access on both.

Cord Cutting?

Another article talking about cable companies losing 400,000 subscribers last quarter. Of course I would expect those numbers to be made up in later quarters and the overall comparison to last year to be a wash.

Two thoughts keep popping up every time I see one of these articles:

1. Say an older couple who had cable moves out of an apartment and younger tenants take over who never bother to add cable but who sign up for a better broadband service than the older couple had - do these new tenants count in the statistics as cord cutters? Technically they never had a cord to cut. Also the revenue from the broadband service may be greater than what the older couple was paying for cable (and with a greater gross margin). How is this a bad thing?

2. Articles like this always seem to bring up Netflix and Hulu like these services don't also contribute to the content providers bottom lines. In the example above the new young tenants are probably consuming more content then the older couple who may have just watched local news and sports.