Comcast offers a similar service in my area but you have to read the fine print as their streaming TV plan counts against your Internet broadband usage and with Comcast, that matters.
Video Cord Cutting Survey Shows Less Interest Than You Might Expect
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Also a crap load of money for their OTT service, by the time you add in all the packs ( news, sports, etc) the cost is about $75 a month, I get all those channels and more from Vue for $50.
I would suspect the rate of cord-cutting is tied primarily to when traditional TV companies announce their rate hikes and/or when the bills reflecting those hikes hit mail boxes, though admittedly I don't have any more data to back that claim up than this statement has.
Regardless of how many people have no plans of cutting the cord, more worrisome to cable/sat cos. are the number of young people with no intention of plopping $100+/mo. on such services while trying to make rent and cell phone payments.
Young people have rarely been endowed with disposable income. The only thing that has changed is that they're spending what they have on items that they probably shouldn't (like a $30/month wireless phone lease payment).
The problem is they are discovering the myriad alternate forms of video entertainment, starting with free ones like YouTube, and won't see the need to add an expensive cable bill to their household budgets. A recent Pew Research study already shows 60% of people 18-29 primarily use online streaming. That will only expand with the growth of OTT options and rising housing costs and stagnant household income growth. About 6 in 10 young adults in U.S. primarily use online streaming to watch TV
It seems like the article doesn't really delve into where the youth get their broadband service from and that's somewhat important in determining whether the cable companies are still tapped in to their wallets.
Conducting a TV viewing survey in the Summer (unless there's an Olympic Games or possibly a World Cup going on during the survey) largely invalidates its results in my mind.
Sorry I forgot about that,but being disabled I watch alot of TV,I can't make it on 25 channels,
I barely get by with YTTV/wStarz and Philo,then there's my wife's subscription to The Hallmark Movies Now app,got to have happy wife,happy life.
My 15-year-old daughter streams Netflix and YTTV on her Verizon iPhone. She will often use the A/V adapter to watch on the big screen. She regularly chews through 80+ GB on my unlimited plan every month. Her mother doesn’t have broadband. Seems to work well for her needs. She will use Dish when she’s at my house, but if I got rid of it I don’t think she’d mind or really notice.
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In addition to cellular data plans and parents' home networks. I'm sure a lot of youth take advantage of free Wi-Fi hotspots at high schools, universities, public libraries, cafés, public parks, etc. (not to mention sharing the costs of regular internet service with roommates). Many streaming video services let you download content to view later.
Yep. They say her generation (Gen Z) is the “wifi entitled generation.” Not saying that’s right or wrong, but they expect to be covered by wifi pretty much 24/7. Of course, most of them don’t understand that “free wifi” isn’t like a “free drinking fountain.” Somebody always pays.
The question is what she'll do when the parental units aren't paying all the bills. The survey age group was 18-29 -- the majority of which are more or less out on their own.
I challenge that you should not have lead with the word "many". Some do, but many do not and if they do, there are frequently limitations (i.e. SD only).
Since kids are now on their parents’ health insurance until age 26, I think most of them expect parental support until well into their late 20’s. Again, not saying I agree or disagree with this, but when I turned 18 in 1998, I was on my own. Mom and Dad didn’t support me until 26.
Survey results on offspring emancipation would be all over the board.
IIRC, the age limits of some insurance companies (health and otherwise) come down to 18 if the child doesn't qualify as a dependent under IRS standards.
Three of the four biggest streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, Prime) do, and the fourth (Hulu) is imminent. I would call that "many" just in terms of market share. Not to mention I'm sure young people are pretty savvy (and have fewer ethical qualms) when it comes to using services like Plex and PlayOn for that purpose. And you can pretty much record any online streaming video with them. I also don't think HD vs. SD is as relevant to people watching on mobile devices or laptops.
I can agree with that up to the point that the content is being "beamed" to a TV.
I wonder about the likelihood of lower data caps/increased throttling with the jettison of 'Net Neutrality. At some point the content owners are going to have to evaluate the impact of downloading.
Most carriers are already doing this; Tmo throttles data back to 480p, Verizon 720p
On a phone screen it’s immaterial; but like you said, beaming or tethering to a TV makes it look abysmal. Luckily I’m on a grandfathered plan and can stream 4k if I want to.
1) You can't cut the cord if you never had it to begin with. That the youngest age group in the study had the highest cord cutting desire isn't a surprise, but fewer of them will have ever had cable TV on their own anyways. Twitch, YouTube, and Netflix reign supreme for video consumption for millennials and gen z. And there's Fortnite.
2) You're out of touch if you think that the hardware cost of the cellphone bill is a frivolous expense, or if you assume every phone you see young people with is financed.
2) You're out of touch if you think that the hardware cost of the cellphone bill is a frivolous expense, or if you assume every phone you see young people with is financed.
True on both counts. All of my devices are owned and my bill is still around $200 per month. I can't imagine the bill size for a family of 4 financing iPhones.
I do see a fair amount of commercials for carriers giving away up to 4 smartphones per account. That gives credence to your second point; not everybody is paying $30 per month to finance a phone.
