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 happening live over time, we’ll wait until it’s done before starting it.

For those that aren’t ready to give up live or weekly TV, the rising cost of online TV services is unfortunate and understandably troubling. But don’t lose sight of the fact that the core benefit of these services is flexibility, not price. And so even though the prices of some of these services are approaching or matching the prices of some cable bundles, the advantage remains: You can turn cord-cutting services on or off at will, at any time, and with no extra charges. And you can sample them for days or weeks at a time for free.

If you’re smart and don’t mind a little hands-on management, this means that you can still save a lot of money, too. For example, you could sign-up for a trial for a service like HBO Now or Showtime, binge-watch an entire season of a show you want to see, and then cancel. You could pay for Netflix for a month or two, binge-watch as much as you want to or can, and then turn it off and try Hulu (or whatever) next. This ability is very freeing, and while we did start paying for YouTube TV for the fall so that we can watch football, we didn’t pay for this service, because we didn’t need it, for the rest of the year.

Look, cable TV isn’t going to go down without a fight, but it is going down. And you don’t have to wait: There’s a whole world of cord-cutting choices out there right now. And if 2019 was any indication, even with the notable defeat of PS Vue, those choices are only expanding over time.