The “cord cutting” trend cable execs spent a decade claiming was a fad just broke another round of new records. According to Leichtman Research, major cable TV providers lost another 1.7 million subscribers last quarter, as users flock to streaming, over the air TV, TikTok, or, you know, books. Roughly 17,700 customers cut the cord every single day during the second quarter of 2023.

Over the last year (Q2 ’22 to Q2 ’23) the traditional cable TV sector lost a whopping 5,360,000 customers, compared to 4,235,000 customer defections the year earlier. The current number of U.S. households that has a cable connection sits somewhere around 46 percent, down from 73% at the end of 2017.

Historically, a big cable company like Comcast or Charter wasn’t too hurt by “cord cutting” because it could just jack up the cost of monopolized broadband access. And while that’s still generally true; here too cable giants are seeing increased competition from community broadband (co-ops, utilities, municipalities), 5G home wireless, and phone companies belatedly upgrading to fiber.

Interestingly though, streaming TV providers also wound up losing subscribers, albeit at a much slower rate:

  • kingshrubb@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Went over my friends house and there was a movie on the TV on cable. It would have taken 4 hours to watch that movie with the amount of ads they cram in. It was unwatchable. Paying to watch ads? Nah.

    • infrasoundxp
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      1 year ago

      This is exactly why I can’t justify paying for cable nowadays, broadband only. Paying to watch ads… Blech

    • coyootje@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I usually just end up recording them if I really want to watch them so I can fast forward through the commercials when I watch it later.