Five years ago, I moved out of my parents’ house and into the "real world"—20 minutes away in a slightly more densely populated corner of suburbia. Like most millennials my age, the economy was still recovering when I graduated from college, so moving out required some sacrifices. One thing that was easy to eliminate was cable—I cut the cord.
At the time, I had an iPad and a Netflix subscription. What more could a girl need? I proudly wore my badge as a cord cutter, beaming when I told people about my sacrifice, and relishing in their shock and awe.
Time marched on and I got a Hulu subscription, and then a friend shared her HBO video streaming information. Then eventually, I started using (with permission) another friend’s cable subscription information to stream live and archived TV through TV Everywhere apps. Was I really the trailblazer I thought I was? I certainly felt like one!
Fast forward to today: I have a cable subscription and use it, along with my streaming subscription services, every day. I’m on par with the general U.S. population when it comes to my TV habits.
- 60% of my TV time is spent with cable TV.
- 40% of my TV time is spent with streaming services, a natural extension of linear TV viewing. I love streaming services because they offer a wide range of content, they fit into my schedule, and who doesn’t love a good binge?
- 100% of the time, my phone is next to me. Sometimes my tablet is nearby too.
I’m living proof that being a cord cutter is a short-lived phenomenon thanks to today's cable subscription model. Everyone will entertain it, some will try it—in fact, 8M Americans cut the cord in 2014—but even most cord cutters are still reliant on cable services, in some form or fashion. For cord cutting to have legs, without the reliance on someone else's cable subscription to stream live TV or sports, cable companies need to start selling TV Everywhere subscriptions. After all, how will we watch The Bachelor once all the cords are cut?
Source: U.S. Connected TV Usage: Digital Content Gives the ‘First Screen’ New Life, eMarketer, December 2015.
