Consumer Trend 2021: Cutting the Cable Cord For Good

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by | Jan 2, 2021 | Trending | 0 comments

It’s no secret that streaming services are a wildly popular option for consumers’ choice of entertainment these days, but a more recent phenomenon among consumers that we believe will spike this upcoming year is cutting the cable cord for good.

Back in September, eMarketer predicted that by the end of 2020, a grand total of 31.2 million US households would have cut the cord with cable TV. In 2024, this number is expected to be 67% of all US households. These numbers do not paint a pretty picture for the future of the cable TV industry, especially if these numbers continue to rise as are expected.

Over the past few years, many consumers have  purchased subscriptions to streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ while also holding onto their cable subscription. The Morning Consult found that on average, consumers pay $38.85/month for their streaming services while consumers who have cable, pay anywhere from $51- 150/month. Consumers would need to fork over an average of about $140 per month just for entertainment. Yikes. Due to their success, streaming services, like Hulu, have begun to expand into the live TV market as they recognize that most consumers aren’t willing to put up with the cost of cable and streaming forever.

Before, consumers who wanted to save money had to forgo either the wide range of channels available with cable in lieu of choosing a few streaming services with varying TV shows and movies to choose from, or vice versa. Many consumers seem to be leaning towards streaming services for their needs. After all, you can choose whatever you want (although not every streaming service has exactly what you may be looking for) and watch it whenever without commercials (for the most part). Unlike cable, you can pause, rewind and re-watch while leaving behind the frustrations of limited options on cable or sitting through commercial breaks.

One of the big issues a lot of consumers confront when leaving cable is the lack of live sports (if EPSN is not one of your streaming subscriptions). However, now there are several other options available that allow consumers to have the best of both worlds: live tv and streaming. Thanks to Hulu + Live TV ($65/month), YouTube TV ($65/month), fuboTV ($65/month) and more consumers pay one fee to watch their live TV shows and stream any show or movie available on that service. 

Consumer $ense predicts this pattern of replacing cable with streaming bundles will continue well into 2021 and beyond.

What do you think: will cable be a thing of the past in the near future? Leave your thoughts below or tweet us @consumersense on Twitter.

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