Cable Woes Mark Change from TV Mentality to Web Culture
Among the luxuries taking a beating from the recession is a service until recently thought by most people to be close to a necessity: cable television. Subscriber growth among big cable systems fell significantly in the last quarter of 2008.
The three biggest systems—Time Warner, Comcast, and Charter Communications—were hit particularly hard.
In fact, Charter filed for bankruptcy protection after losing more than 75,000 subscribers in one quarter. The Dish Network satellite system lost 10,000 subscribers in the third quarter.
Verizon's fiber optic cable service is doing well, however, as consumers switch from a cable mentality to a Web viewpoint. Advertising Age quotes Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt as observing, "people, typically young people, are saying, 'All I need is broadband. I don't need video.' And obviously they are already saying they don't need wireline phone."
—S. T. Karnick
Are you ready to drop cable TV and move exclusively to Web viewing? Have you done so already? Comment here.
Comments
We haven't but our grown son has.
Posted by: James Drake | February 19, 2009 05:08 PM
Thanks for your comment, James. I think you make a great point about generational differences in this regard. In order to cover the culture beat properly, I have to have cable/satellite TV, but if not for that factor I think I might indeed just go for it and exclusively get my home video information and entertainment through the Web and DVDs (HD, of course). It would seem quite economical to do so, and I reckon that as time goes on an increasingly great percentage of the nation's adults and households will do exactly that.
That will continue the salutary process of breaking the mainstream media's control over the American culture.
Posted by: S. T. Karnick | February 20, 2009 10:00 AM