Is Cable TV Dead?

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 In a word, yes.  If you dont know what cord cutting is, it's getting rid of cable TV.  But to do this you need a Smart TV, or an app based device like Fire TV or a Roku.  But that is a one time expense.  Just about every TV sold today is a Smart TV.  Cutting the cable cord is so easy to do.  But then one needs to decide which of the app based services one wants to have.  Netflix, Peacock, Disney+, Paramount, etc. all add up.

The reason why I am having this discussion now is because just this past week, cable companies are telling investors not to be too optimistic about the future of cable TV.  The number one reason is that cable does not have on-demand services.  So cable plus these extra services is still expensive.  One could say that one still needs Wi-Fi, which is often bundled with cable pricing.  But is cord-cutting cheaper?  Yes, is the short answer.  One can get app based TV for as low as $20 a month, but the offerings are limited.  It just depends on what you want from your TV viewing.  Cable just can't compete with cord cutting options.

When we first subscribed to Hulu+, we were paying a lot less than cable.  But as Hulu+ pricing has gone up, so has cable TV.  And cable TV is constantly haggling over providers' costs.  This paat weekend, for example, Spectrum quit airing ESPN and ABC, due to a contract dispute with Disney owned channels, making college football fans angry.  No matter how you slice it, app based TV IS still cheaper than cable.  We find that Hulu+ has everything we want.  Yes, we still pay for the premium services that we'd be paying for if we had cable.  Here where we live, Wi-Fi is included in our rent.  

But if we just had cable we'd be paying in excess of $50 extra a month without on-demand services like we get on Hulu+.  In addition to this we get free recording of shows, plus we get time shift on most shows we'd watch, and can watch them when it is convenient to do so.  Cable can't do this, so we don't miss cable one bit.  YouTube might be better than Hulu+, but there isn't much difference between those two, except Hulu+ allows only three streams on devices, while YouTube allows for six.  One can have many devices, but the use is limited to three at one time.

It's just that cable TV sees the writing on the wall.  There isn't much future left for cable unless cable can in some way have streaming, which it can't.  It's just that app based services are the future.  If cable were to add streaming services as I've mentioned, the costs for cable would be prohibitive.  No one would want it.  The future of cable TV is grim indeed.  When we first subscribed to Hulu+ it was pretty inexpensive, but now the costs aren't that much less than cable, but no cable system can compete with any streaming service.

We've decided for our TV viewing needs that Hulu+ is the best choice.  I told my wife we could try YouTube TV, but she is quite content with Hulu+.  But the fact is that cable is a dinosaur compared to a streaming service.

I don't have to worry about my pipes becoming dinosaurs.  They have been around without much change for thousands of years.  The tobacco is more refined and like pipe making process itself, has evolved.  But while many things change, the pipe does not.  Today I decided to smoke my Peterson Sherlock Holmes pipe with some of the Caribbean Blue Wyme.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave

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