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Cord-Cutting

 Cord-cutting is defined as “the practice of canceling or forgoing a cable television subscription or landline phone connection in favor of an alternative Internet-based or wireless service.” (Oxford dictionary) Basically, it involves moving from live TV services to streaming services. Since the 2020 pandemic, cord-cutting is up by 23% (fortune) and more and more people have been buying internet services. 

eMarketer shows that advertisements have dropped over $10 billion and they have projected that it will climb back but won’t reach the original $70.59 billion until at least after 2024. That drop is almost 15% and it hasn’t been this low since 2011 (Tech Crunch). 


The math is there if you are wanting to save a buck here and there. With internet costing around $60 a month plus subscription services adding around $30-40, that's still nowhere near what an average cable cost would be. Spectrum offers just internet for $49.99 a month and you can add cable to that for an additional $44.99 but the simple package won’t include the more expensive ‘premium’ channels and that’ll only increase your bill. If you do that same plan but with Netflix, it will be $49.99 a month for the internet and then a flat rate of $8.99 a month for 1 person to be able to stream at once. Even if you decided to go with the premium membership with Netflix, it would still only be $17.99 a month. Either way, that had a much better price.


Another benefit to cord-cutting would be the fact that you are only paying for the channels that you want to watch. If you have a cable service you may have, for example, around 300 channels but only watch 20 or so of them. You would be wasting money on 280 channels that you wouldn’t even use. Using streaming services allows you to just pay for a few individual services and then maybe a bigger platform allowing you to save money and only pay for what you use. 


You can also watch anything you want on the go. Most services have a mobile app so you can watch from a phone, tablet, or mobile device. This is super convenient, especially if you go on vacation or are just away from home all of the time. It allows you to catch up on shows when you are in a waiting room at the doctor or while you are doing laundry. This is very helpful and is a huge perk for tons of people everywhere.


Lastly, it is a massive time saver. You wouldn’t have to take time out of your day to record certain shows at certain times. You could just get online and watch however many episodes of whatever shows you want to without having to worry about missing something or losing your place in the show. Most streaming services have an automatic saving system to show you what episode you were on and where in that specific episode you were. 


Overall, cutting the cord seems to be the right move for thousands of people across the world at the moment. It may not be right for everyone but the benefits are there if you are looking for a more personalized watching experience.


Sources:

https://fortune.com/2020/09/21/cord-cutting-record-covid-19-pandemic/ (video)


https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-cutting-the-cord-4145351


https://www.techhive.com/article/3346020/cord-cutter-beginners-guide.html


https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/21/pandemic-accelerated-cord-cutting-making-2020-the-worst-ever-year-for-pay-tv/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFu2spUmhST3-Mnw7B2HjDbF6bsenfVNRPOsrwbC7nje7Fj_nWWW43KWV21gX1lvvIgD5sW6rWX42RzDZwjtH05ZJ0IKgtBSRF5fwfFjVHUIPR089LuoLNIN-C6F-OYu7z8lszrqOoOX-l4YebvFppGuQBuRfMTBsKE-M7RCA3AC


https://www.consumerreports.org/streaming-media/how-to-decide-if-cord-cutting-is-right-for-you/


https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/09/28/its-official-2020-is-cord-cuttings-pivotal-moment/


https://www.google.com/search?q=cord+cutting+definition&oq=c&aqs=chrome.2.69i60j69i59l2j69i60l2j69i65l2j69i60.1663j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8


https://www.spectrum.com/cable-tv


https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24926

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