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If you have cut the cord from cable, you are one of a rapidly growing number of Americans. In 2019, the number of American households that will have made the switch will reach 22 million. Anna Nicolaou reports that costs and the annoyance of commercial breaks are driving Americans to get rid of traditional cable and to instead watch streaming television. She writes at The Financial Times:
More and more Americans are rejecting cable’s hefty monthly costs and commercial breaks as they decide on-demand streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime can satisfy their viewing desires.
The exodus from cable has weighed on the industry for years, as the number of Americans who pay for traditional TV steadily declined from 100.5m in 2014 to 86.5m in 2019.
The shift has upended the industry, as traditional media groups race against time to diversify away from the cable and satellite business model that they have relied on for decades.
The sector has coped through consolidation, with the biggest groups such as Disney and AT&T splurging on megadeals as they look to build up fortresses of content they can package into their own streaming services.
Meanwhile, Comcast and other companies that pipe TV into homes have largely accepted that video subscribers are in long-term decline, and are trying to make up for the loss by selling high-speed internet, an essential for anyone wanting to watch streaming services such as Netflix.
Read more here.
Jeremy Jones, CFA
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