The days of the traditional cable service may be numbered, at least according to a recent poll. Once upon a time, cable companies were king. The standard user would receive a package of channels from the cable provider, and most were not watched, but they were part of the package deal. There were even jokes in the ’80s about people having 100 channels and nothing to watch. That trend continued, until relatively recently.
There have been several factors causing problems for the traditional cable packages. One of them was the speed increase of high speed internet. Now, people have the ability to stream high quality video online without interruptions they would normally have on cable, in other words, commercials. The overall increases mean that more have access to streaming services.
Combine that with cable companies increasing their prices of their services, and it is not hard to see why only 34% of the people surveyed felt pay TV was still a good value, in a recent poll commissioned by RCA Antennas. In only the last 5 years, cable prices have gone up by well over 1/3rd. No matter the economics or the reasons, increases in cable rates only succeed in making the cable companies look greedy.
Because of this reaction, more and more channels are embracing the thought of an OTT (over-the-top) streaming service. All that means is that people have the option to watch pay channels without a multi channel operator (like the cable company) having a say. These a la carte options are becoming extremely popular in the industry, and people may watch them from anywhere that has an internet connection, not just from where they live.
Not surprisingly, pay TV services like Sling TV are taking hold. Cable companies have become so unpopular, that some kept cable service only for the few channels they watched. Once those channels become more readily available as a pay as you go service, we may find the ways of the traditional cable company are going by the wayside. Cable may not be dead yet, but unless something changes soon, they are certainly on the ropes.
