Cord-cutting is not just for millennials anymore.
Fed
up with high prices and bloated packages, millions of Americans cut the
cord on cable TV in 2017, finding refuge with a growing number of
streaming services, which deliver lower prices and a competitive channel
lineup over the internet.
.......Internet television, also
known as over the top, bypasses cable and delivers video directly to
viewers through a broadband connection.
Major players include
subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu as well as livestreaming services such as Sling TV and DirecTV Now, which air dozens of cable channels in real time.
...“The genie is out of the bottle, and it’s not going to be
put back in,” Moffett said. “The media companies are now dependent on
the (over-the-top) providers to sustain their distribution, so they have
no choice but to steam forward and make their content available.”
Traditional
pay-TV providers — cable, satellite and telephone companies — lost 1.7
million subscribers in 2016, and the pace is accelerating, with more
than 2.6 million cutting the cord....
....“I had
Comcast for a long time, and the bill just kept rising on me, so I switched to
Hulu Live TV,” he said.
Napier
still gets internet from Comcast, but he is saving about $15 over his
$160-per-month cable and broadband bundle with the nascent Hulu Live
streaming service. He supplements his service with Netflix, Amazon Prime
and a TV antenna to watch the Cubs on WGN-Ch.9 over the air for free.
Sling
TV broke new ground when Dish Network launched the service in early
2015 as a slimmed-down streaming alternative to satellite and cable
services. Last fall, competing satellite provider DirecTV, owned by
AT&T, launched its own streaming service, called
DirecTV Now.
PlayStation
Vue also was early to the game, launching its live streaming service
more than two years ago, but the livestreaming category blew up in 2017
with new offerings from Hulu and YouTube joining a suddenly crowded
field.
YouTube TV went live in April in five markets, including
Chicago, and has since rolled out to dozens of cities across the U.S.
Hulu Live launched in May.
Streaming devices such as Apple TV, Google’s
Chromecast
and Roku make streaming services feel very much like cable, easing the
transition for cord cutters. But for many, the biggest reason for taking
the plunge into streaming is price. The average cost to subscribe to
traditional pay TV is more than $100 per month, while the average bill
for a streaming TV service runs $35 to $40, on top of the cost of an
internet connection.
A report published this month by digital
video recorder manufacturer TiVo found that 85 percent of cord cutters
cited bills that were too expensive as the primary reason for canceling
their traditional TV subscription.
...Etsch
also adds subscription video-on-demand services Netflix, Amazon Prime
and HBO Go to his homemade bundle, all of which he accesses through
PlayStation Vue. He is far from alone.
...Owning the pipeline to streaming TV services
may be even more valuable in the wake of the Dec. 14 decision by the
Federal Communications Commission to roll back Obama-era net neutrality
regulations ensuring equal access to the internet.
The regulatory
approach adopted by the FCC gives broadband providers latitude to charge
more and limit access to certain websites.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @RobertChannick
To read the remainder of this article, please get the Dec 26th edition of the Chicago Tribune. 
