The number of suckers Americans subscribing to pay TV has hit its lowest level since 1992.
Well, this is inevitable when every time you turn on your TV, there’s a guy in a dress being treated seriously or two fellas smooching.
Not to mention the bottom falling out of storytelling, which is now filled with smug and insufferable political rhetoric that breaks the storytelling spell on top of all the lectures and shaming that destroys the appeal of the central characters.
In just one quarter, 2.3 million subscribers cut their cable and satellite TV cords.
Look at these numbers…
With the Q1 decline, total pay-TV penetration of occupied U.S. households (including for internet services like YouTube TV and Hulu) dropped to 58.5% — its lowest point since 1992, two years before DirecTV launched as a new rival to cable TV, according to Moffett’s calculations. As of the end of Q1, U.S. pay-TV services had 75.5 million customers, down nearly 7% on an annual basis.
Cable TV operators’ rate of decline in Q1 reached -9.9% year over year, while satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network fell -13.4%. In addition, so-called “virtual MVPDs” (multichannel video programming distributors) lost 264,000 customers in Q1, among the worst quarters to date for the segment.
Those “virtual MVPDs” are services that offer the equivalent of cable TV through streaming — like Sling, Hulu Live. It’s merely a different way to subscribe to cable TV.
With some streaming services losing billions and the movie industry becoming a half-billion-dollar gamble with each release, cable TV is the one remaining cash cow for these massive, left-wing multinational entertainment corporations. And as I’ve been pointing out for 15 years now, that same cable TV is a con job; a rigged system that has you paying for dozens and dozens of channels you never watch. If a channel is on your cable package, you are still subsidizing it through your overpriced cable bill, even if you don’t watch it. This isn’t true for every channel but it’s definitely true for left-wing outlets that hate you: MSNBC, CNN, ESPN, etc. Yes, a piece of your cable bill goes directly to these monsters, which is why you should cancel your cable.
More good news:
Is there a bottom in sight for the pay-TV industry? MoffettNathason has argued that the “pay TV floor” is between 50 million and 60 million U.S. homes. But, Moffett wrote in the latest report, “As things stand, we expect cord-cutting to grow even worse and the long-theorized ‘floor’ to be breached.”
I cut the cable almost ten years ago. Honestly, it felt like I had removed a sewer pipe pumping filth directly into my house. Since, I’ve also cut my streaming subscriptions, except for Amazon Prime, but that’s due to the free shipping more than the pile of garbage on Amazon’s terrible streaming service.
I don’t believe in boycotts. It’s just that I got fed up. Almost all modern entertainment sucks. Instead, I’m investing more and more in my Blu-ray collection, which means I have hard copies of thousands of classic films. Right now, I mostly focus on foreign films I’ve never seen, which are a hundred times better than whatever soulless, woke garbage Netflix offers.
Here’s a tip for the pay-TV industry, including streaming; Just like you have verticals for “Black Cinema,” “Action,” and “LGBT Movies,” offer a “No Gay Stuff” vertical. Seriously, a “No Gay Stuff” category will save your customers a ton of time and protect them from those infuriating moments that come with feeling sucker punched. Ultimately, this will make them more appreciative and, therefore, less likely to cancel.
By the way, since 1992, America’s added almost 80 million people to our population — and pay TV is still losing millions of subscribers.
When it comes to entertainment, it is all about content, and your content sucks.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.