Cutting Cord on Telephone and Cable TV to Save Money | Jeff Kagan Tech Analyst

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Jeff KAGAN

Tech Analyst

     

Cutting Cord on Telephone and Cable TV to Save Money | Jeff Kagan Tech Analyst

Customers are cutting the cords on both their traditional cable television and telephone to save money.

Do you remember what telephone and cable television used to cost? Before all the add on features we used to pay very little compared with today.

Then the cable television and local telephone companies started to offer additional services that cranked up our bills.

Today most people complain about how high their bills are.

Cable television rates rise year after year. In fact every ten years we pay roughly twice as much.

While local phone charges don’t really increase year after year they are still too high. Especially when you compare to the competition and the changing marketplace.

While investors in these companies are very happy, customers are angry.

Many customers want all these new features. Fine.

However many customers want to save money. They want to pay as little as possible. They are being squeezed out.

The result is cable television companies like Comcast, Time Warner and Cox are scaring customers away. This is now starting to impact their bottom line.

And while companies like AT&T and Verizon who offer uVerse and FiOS television are still growing, it is much slower than a year or two ago.

What is happening?

Customers are finding new ways to cut costs and that often means cutting the cord.

The blind ride these companies have taken the marketplace on is now biting them in the rear end.

Many customers today buy an antenna and get great quality on 15 – 25 channels for free.

They may also download movies from places like Netflix or Amazon.com and are very happy at a much lower cost.

They often pay $15 – $25 per month instead of $100 – $150.

Now Google is offering TV in Kansas City along with very high speed Internet. That will put more pressure on existing carriers.

Then Apple enters the space with iTV and changes it more.

The television model is broken and is starting to be replaced. It happened with music, movies, smart phones, computers with tablets and next is television.

Pay television lost roughly 400,000 subscribers in the second quarter. That is a very large hole in the side of the giant ship.

And like Titanic, holes that large are serious trouble.

This is a new problem. The pay television industry grew until 2010. Now it is shrinking.

This happened with the telephone as well. That was growing through the 1990′s, then in the 2000′s it started it’s decline as new technology and competition came into play.

Same thing is starting to happen to television now.

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These comments may be quoted in news stories. They are being sent by email list and on the web.

Please attribute to Jeff Kagan, Tech Industry Analyst with www.jeffKAGAN.com

If you would like to discuss, call me at 770-579-5810 or send an email to jeff@JeffKAGAN.com

To be added or removed from this list, please send me an email with request.

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Jeff KAGAN| Tech Industry Analyst www.jeffKAGAN.com

Analyst sharing perspective on the changing industry for 25 years

~ Also Columnist, Author, Consultant, Speaker
~ Column http://www.ectnews.com/perl/section/jeff_kagan/

Phone 770-579-5810 Email jeff@jeffKAGAN.com

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