This business model worked for cable providers because their customers had little if any choice in the matter. However, nothing lasts forever and when new options like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, and many others started sprouting up, people realized the big TV providers had been scalping them for years. These TV providers have proven too big and cumbersome to make sweeping changes and, as a result, they are steadily going the way of the dinosaurs.

 

Cable customers have been cutting the cord at an accelerating rate over the past few years, with a total of 5.5 million subscribers terminating their contracts with TV providers last year alone—a 70% increase from 2018’s 3.2 million cord-cutters. Simultaneously, more households are becoming “cord nevers” (people who have never subscribed to a TV provider and use on-demand services or the internet instead) than ever before.

 

We got to this place today where cable customers are leaving their providers in droves for a number of reasons that have made alternative TV options enticing and practical. Let’s look at two of the biggest factors that make cord-cutting viable and, more importantly, appealing to so many people.

Reason 1: The Internet

Sure, the Internet has been around for quite some time at this point, but it’s only recently that high-speed internet connections were made available and reasonably affordable to such a huge number of people. Modern-day internet is many orders of magnitude faster than yesteryear’s dial-up.

Fiber optics are becoming more common by the day, with internet providers using this new technology to provide gigabytes per second connection speeds. 

Dial-up, on the other hand, caps out at a maximum theoretical speed of 56 kbps. That means modern internet speeds are roughly 18,000 times faster than dial-up. Soak in that number for a second while I catch my breath. 

In other words, a gigabit internet connection can download a feature-length film with a file size of 800 MB in less than 10 seconds while it would take a dial-up connection roughly 9 DAYS to download the same file.

 You would have a hard time finding people willing to wait 9 days for a Netflix movie to load, but modern high-speed internet allows users to instantly access and stream content with virtually zero delay.

Reason 2: Cha-Ching

More people are realizing every day that they can enjoy most, if not all, of the same content they love to watch through their TV providers on cheaper alternative options. It’s not hard to see why someone would want to switch from paying $150+ each month for TV service to a selection of services they handpicked that cost them less than the introductory prices offered by the cable companies.

 

The writing is on the wall for cable companies, but TV production companies are in a better place than ever thanks to new cable alternatives. With new content continuously popping up on Netflix and Hulu, just to name a couple, audiences have a wide breadth of entertainment choices.

How You Can Take Advantage of Cord Cutting

Luckily, there are options for content creators and production companies that don’t involve the monolithic cable companies of yesteryear. Believe it or not, you can start your own Internet TV network and avoid expensive cable providers by going over-the-top (OTT). 

Launch your own Netflix-style service or get your channel on smart TVs, Roku, mobile devices, Apple TV, and more services across the globe. 

See for yourself how it works by scheduling a live demo. We work hard to enable great video content creators like yourself to pocket the money your hard work deserves. Get in touch with us today to learn more.