2019: The Year in Cord Cutting (Premium)

In some ways, 2019 was a dark time for the cord-cutting rebellion. The number of services overall exploded in 2019, giving us more choice but also more complexity. The cost of online TV services, in particular, also got more expensive throughout the year. And one of the top-tier services, PlayStation Vue, actually quit the business. Is cord-cutting doomed?

Hardly.

Instead, what we’re witnessing is the death throes of a business model that dates back to the 1970s. Cable television, following in the not-so-illustrious footsteps of the music industry, has decided to fight the inevitable change that is sweeping it aside rather than adapt for the new millennium. Cord-cutting is here to stay.

That said, those early pioneers who have given up their cable TV set-top boxes (or similar) do face some hardships in the form of choice, as there are far too many services, with so many content creators starting their own services rather than joining forces with others. And especially in cost: Not only are online TV services getting more and more expensive, but because there are so many other video offerings, many will feel compelled to subscribe to multiple services. For example, Disney+ and Apple TV+ won’t be able to replace Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video for many; instead, they will subscribe to at least a few of these choices.

Cable TV is behind the rise in online TV service pricing, as they’ve made it prohibitively expensive for services to buy or offer their customers individual channels. Instead, they’re forced to purchase expensive bundles that include a lot of lower-tier channels, just like the cable providers. The result is higher prices and a refutation of the choice-based ideals of these services: We’re no longer just paying for what we want, we’re also paying for a lot of other content too.

The good news? It can’t last. Just as cable TV swept aside traditional TV decades ago, the value proposition of cord-cutting services will likewise do the same to cable. Part of the reason is the wholesale change in viewing habits that these services bring. Where cable TV made it possible to view “Must-see TV” on your own schedule thanks to its DVR capabilities, cord-cutting services are riding the binge-watching wave. So now we can watch an entire series whenever we want, even all at once, in a single setting.

Yes, change is hard. If you followed my experiments with cord-cutting after we moved to Pennsylvania in mid-2017, you may remember that we went all-digital at first, added back cable TV because we missed certain things, and then walked away from cable, again, never to return. What’s most interesting about this messy transition is that we arrived on the other end with almost no desire at all for live TV---except for some big sporting events like the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, and the World Series---or for weekly shows that occur over time. We want to watch multiple episodes of a series, and if a show is hap...