Cable Bills Are Climbing, But Users Stick With Pay TV

Logically, when the cable bills go up, the subscribers would cut the cord immediately. However, this is not what is actually happening at present.

A recent survey showed that despite the growing charges, almost eighty-two percent of the households across the nation still subscribe to one or the other pay TV service. This number is down from the eighty-seven percent in 2011, but is the same as in 2005.

However, cable TV alternatives were limited a decade ago. For instance, Netflix did not launch their streaming service until the beginning of 2007, and Hulu started their service a year after that. But now, all such pay TV services are available to a cord cutter.

The reluctance of the users to cut cords is much surprising, as they can save lot of money by moving on to satellite TV services. Another survey showed that users with triple play bundles with internet, TV, and telephone, spend about 187 dollars per month and the users who cut their pay TV services from the bundle spend only about 83 dollars per month. Where on the other hand, cord nevers, the users who never have subscribed to pay TV services, spend only 71 dollars per month.

Surveys also note that out of the TV households that do not subscribe to any pay TV service currently, fourteen percent did pay for some pay TV service in the previous year, but dropped the service. “The flow in and out [of pay-TV services] is largely the same today as it was a decade ago—it’s centered around expense and lack of use,” Leichtman Research Group explains. “A difference today, however, is that consumers have more choice of alternatives via the internet and from over-the-air if they decide not to get a pay-TV service.”

Researchers also say that about one percent of the pay TV subscribers are new and this is same as 2011, but down from the 3.5 percent growth in 2006. They also noted that about twelve percent of the pay TV subscribers are likely to switch their service providers in the upcoming months, which is similar to what happened in the last two years.