Tommy Talley was an early pioneer of the cord-cutting movement, making the break from cable in 2010. He and his wife had just bought their first house in Baton Rouge so money was scarce and having traditional pay-TV didn’t make much sense to them.
The cable-free lifestyle is easier today than it was back then, even in a five-person household, Talley, 36, says in a new Business Report feature. The founder of Tommys TV production company subscribes to four streaming services: Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO GO and Amazon Prime. He also has an HD antenna to catch local channels.
This setup works well for his family and, he says, saves them money. But, for Talley, it’s also a matter of principle, saying the decision to cut the cord was, in part, driven by his opposition to big cable companies having a near-monopoly over their markets.
This is the cord-cutter’s rallying cry, growing louder and gaining popularity. The traditional pay-TV industry lost a combined 1.7 million subscribers in 2016, according to Bloomberg. Publicly traded companies like Comcast, Charter and AT&T are on track to report even higher losses this year. Baton Rouge’s top cable provider, Cox Communications, a private company, declined to say whether it has lost customers in the Baton Rouge market.
Cable companies naturally downplay the movement. Regardless of public posturing, pay-TV providers, aware of the declining trend line, are changing—and fighting back. Most notably, cable and telecommunications companies are expanding services in an effort to keep customers from straying. Cox has upgraded its cable experience with Contour TV—recently adding Netflix to its options—and AT&T launched its own DirecTV Now streaming service.
And more significant is the shift in focus from cable to internet service. Providers and consumers agree the future lies in the internet, which is essential to the cord-cutting movement. But an ominous sign for cord-cutters is the impending death of net neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission has announced plans to reverse the Obama-era net neutrality rules, which prevent internet providers—which are also cable and satellite providers—from blocking or charging more for access to websites or online services. Cable and broadband providers would be able to raise prices, Fortune reports, to stem the threat of internet-based services, making it more expensive for cord-cutters to stream content.
This move would be a win for the cable and telecommunications industry, solidifying their power in the market—now more so as internet service providers—and further proving cord-cutting is still not as liberating as its name suggests.
Read the full story. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
