Last but not least, today’s last look at TV cord cutting, AKA “The Modern Buggy Whip Manufacturers Strike Back.” (Yeah, we made that up. But here’s what we mean:
by Luke Bouma
There is an old saying that goes “look at who they attack, and you will find out who they are afraid of.” This seems to be very true as a growing number of media companies line up to attack cord cutting.
Already this year both NBC and CBS have published stories pushing the idea that cord cutting costs as much as cable TV. Although they didn’t say it, the underlining idea was “come back to cable TV.”
Even NPR is working on a story that asks the question “is the cost of subscription services adding up?” In the last few weeks since Netflix’s $2 price hike I have heard from multiple news groups asking for interviews or comment on how cord cutting is as much as cable TV.
Yet when Comcast, Spectrum, Dish, and DIRECTV all raise their rates we hardly hear about it. This week we learned that for the second time in a year Spectrum is raising their broadcast TV fee by 20%. We hardly see anything in the news about it and no one asked whether this makes cord cutting an even better deal.
The truth is there is no evidence that shows cord cutting is going to ever cost more than cable TV. The only way cord cutting can catch up to cable TV is if cable TV stops raising their prices for a few years. Historically, there is no evidence to support the idea cable TV will suddenly stop raising their rates.
Yet even though study after study shows cord cutting saves money and while millions of Americans ditched cable TV in 2018, news groups seem desperate to push the idea that cord cutting is just not worth it….