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How Many Young People Plan to Cut the Cord? Not as Many as You Might Think

Sep 12, 2014  •  Post A Comment

A new media survey provides some insights into the number of people who plan to cut off their cable or satellite subscriptions.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the survey by Frank N. Magid Associates found that about 5 percent of people between the ages of 24 and 34 currently plan to end their pay-television subscriptions.

The findings were presented at the Goldman Sachs media conference in New York.

“Among the wider population of those surveyed, those saying they intend to cut the cord was 2.9 percent, which might not sound like a lot, but would represent millions of customers and is more than the 2.2 percent in 2012 who said they would soon cancel pay TV,” the story notes.

About three-quarters of people who are getting rid of their pay-TV service said they are satisfied with what they can view without the subscriptions, either via streamed shows or digital content, the story adds.

“Not surprisingly, about 40 percent rate their customer service from cable and satellite companies fair or worse,” the piece notes.

The report adds: “The amount of people who say they can’t live without their TV remains steady at 57 percent, but among 18-to-34-year-olds, TV as the primary medium for entertainment is down 40 percent to 21 percent. Those who say they can’t live without their smartphones is up sharply in the last three years — from 22 percent to 50 percent.”

5 Comments

  1. Why do authors of articles like this always ignore the FACT that TV exist even if you do not pay for it!!!!
    Sure, the majority of people say they cannot live without their TVs but they can live without their “Pay TV.” TV viewers are realizing that in this economy paying between $40 and $150 a month to a cable or satellite company that is rude and offers the worst customer service of any of the utility companies out there is not the only option In other words they can live without wasting that money each month and STILL have their TV. Cord Cutters do not only watch TV on their tiny computers–the antenna business is BOOMING. No longer is Broadcast TV made up of six fuzzy channels. With digital TV, broadcasters now offer 30, 40, 50, 60 or more FREE yes Free TV channels–depending on the city you live in. (Sounds like the number of channels in most basic cable or satellite packages) Consumers are catching on. Cable companies did a good job of convincing consumers that TV was going away when the broadcast channels went digital and they cashed in on the panic. But like everything, this too shall pass. The word is getting out about the many FREE Broadcast TV Digital Choices and that for spoiled people like me, that DVRs are available for “Broadcast TV” viewers too. By the way, I call myself a TV Viewer even though I do not pay for it.
    I am so sick of article authors saying that TV is dying. Do an experiment…drive around your neighborhood some evening and count how many houses in you neighbor have flickering blue lights shining through their windows. TV is not dead!

  2. Meatball is quite correct. Those who proclaim TV is dying obviously have their thumbs in the digital pies and are hoping that they will someday be right. Yeah? Try to watch The Avengers on a 4″ screen…

  3. Sorry, Scott and Meatball — the author does not say TV is dying. It simply says a relatively small % of 24-34s are disposed to do so. In fact, the headline belies your hasty generalization.
    I agree that there are plenty of pieces in the press that make the mistake of which you speak, but this isn’t one of them. It’s actually reported in a modest manner intended not to generate such interpretations.

  4. The time is now. Why should we have to pay hundreds of dollars per month to cable companies when there are so many alternatives popping up each day? I recently decided to cut the cord, and I can’t believe I didn’t make the decision sooner. Of course I subscribed to Netflix but I felt like I was missing out on current TV shows on some of the major networks. That’s when I came across Rabbit TV. They claim to be the world’s largest entertainment guide, with links to all the free content on the web. Since it was only $10 a year I decided to try it out and I am so glad I did. With Rabbit TV, Netflix and Hulu I can safely say I am NEVER going back to cable!

  5. Young people dont have to cut the cord because they never had the “cord” to begin with! Half of all the young kids are still unemployed, underemployed and living at home with mom. Which means theyre not paying for cable anyways. CherrySport is right there are TONS of subscription based sites out there which are much cheaper than cable. Why are the kids going to pay $150 a month when they can pay $50 and get all the cable companies offer AND MORE!

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