Number of People Cutting the Cord Continues to Rise
Cord cutting has been around for many years, but recently it has really started to take off. Now it seems 2017 is the year more Americans than ever become cord cutters.
The number of people leaving cable each year outnumbers those joining, and has done so since 2013. –Economist
The Pay-TV industry experienced its worst Q1 results ever this year. In the first quarter of 2017 more than three-fourths of a million American households canceled cable TV. According to the US Census, there are about 2.58 people per US household. So with 762,000 American households ditching cable TV that works out to be almost 2 million Americans no longer using traditional pay TV.
This is a noticeable increase in the number of Americans who have ditched traditional pay TV. In 2015, 1.1 million American households became cord cutters. Now in just the first 3 months of this year, more than 762,000 American households ditched cable.
If this rate of decline continues, 2.4% of the American population will ditch traditional pay TV by the end 2017. That would mean more than 3 million Americans could ditch traditional pay TV services this year alone.
Why People are Cutting the Cord
Many of us have experienced our own frustrating experiences with pay TV providers. After all, they consistently top the list of America’s most hated companies. From the infamous Comcast customer service call to cashing a mistakenly mailed rent check, the stories are seemingly never-ending.
While cable TV bundles and their costs continue to increase, people just aren’t watching that many TV channels. As of last year, the average TV subscriber had access to 206 channels but watched fewer than 10% of those channels. And as of 2016, the average monthly cost of cable TV reached the $103 mark.
Poor customer service, rising costs, paying for useless channels, and a desire for more control over what you watch and how you watch it are top of mind for folks looking to ditch traditional pay TV.
Cord Cutting Now Simpler than Ever with Untangle.TV
Recognizing the growing number of options for watching TV without a traditional cable or satellite subscription and the misconceptions that it’s too hard to cut the cord, Mohu developed the Untangle TV cord cutting guide. It takes the premise of putting what you watch first. From there, it generates a custom recommendation for which combination of streaming devices, antenna, and/or streaming services will get you the shows and channels you want to watch.
Untangle.TV takes into account factors like how tech-savvy you are, if you’re budget-conscious, do you own any streaming devices or watch any streaming services already. It will also calculate your estimated monthly savings relative to your current pay-TV bill.
If you haven’t cut the cord yet, what’s keeping you from doing so?
