Do You Still Need Cable TV?

Cable TV has been the major source of entertainment for a majority of people, and it has continued like this ever since the inception of this medium. This is because of the sheer technological leap that the entertainment industry took by essentially transporting a cinema screen into people’s homes through Television. This was a very big step in terms of the entertainment industry and the overall technological landscape. This in turn makes space for what is to come in the future of visual communication.

From its mainstream use back in the 50s, cable TV enjoyed the status of being the sole medium for visual entertainment for almost half a decade, yes there were other options like radio, stereo music, and home multimedia but nothing ever came close to what cable TV had to offer. The kind of content variety that cable TV possessed was unmatched by other mediums let alone the most astonishing feature of being the sole visual entertainment medium.

But today’s entertainment climate is quite different as there have been many competitors to cable TV. Still, despite this competition cable TV is fighting back, for now. Nielsen TV Household Association states that there are 121 million cable TV homes in the US. This is a big number with the change of times when streaming is considered a primary source of entertainment for many. For lovers of cable TV, since they are paying a good amount of money for these outclass services, it does not make sense to settle for the mediocrity of streaming. With streaming, the hassle that comes along is sometimes too handy, which is why it is always a good idea to go with reputed service providers that have a solid track record of great Spectrum internet plans and cable services.

In terms of cable TV services, this solid contender comes in the shape of Cox communications. That’s because Cox is the third largest cable company in the country, so going with it as your cable provider is a no-brainer. You can visit the Cox website or contact Cox customer service to know more about their plans and the channel lineup, while you can also buy through these channels. However, if you are the kind of person who wants to do away with cable TV entirely, keep reading because you can find much more than just cable entertainment in this technologically equipped landscape.  

Cable’s Competition

One crucial factor behind cable TV’s unbeaten run was the lack of competition. While there were other mediums present like home media, cinemas, and CDs on which users can watch their favorite content, nothing came close to cable TV. That’s because although, these other mediums provided a visual medium of entertainment, the ability to telecast live content was missing in all of them.

This live broadcasting feature was limited to the radio and then cable TV, and both of them were technological marvels of their time. Coming back to cable it had quite a long run but as with many other technologies, the internet slowly became a major threat to its existence. That is because over the past decade streaming has transformed into the biggest competition of cable TV and it is a service that solely runs over the internet, however, the variety is questionable.

Beginning of Streaming Services

Ever since the invention of cable TV, this was the first time that it had a worthy competitor and it came in the shape of streaming services. Netflix, a name we all know today started with humble beginnings in 2007 but it wasn’t until 2011 that this service came into the limelight. When Netflix blew up, it encouraged many other big names like Disney and Warner Bros to follow suit with this subscription-based business model as Netflix had struck gold with this model and other stakeholders also wanted a piece of their own in this new sub-genre of entertainment. 

With many jumping on this bandwagon, there are more than 200 streaming services that are available today. With this much saturation, this industry is also getting cutthroat due to immense competition and in that race, they are striving to provide a diverse content lineup at reduced prices, this saturation and competition created even more problems for cable TV’s survival.

The End of Cable TV?

Streaming services provided users with an increased number of options like watching content on the go whenever where ever they want, the ability to forward, rewind, pause, and even download their favorite TV shows or movies for later viewing, all this at a significantly meager cost. But the increased saturation of these streaming platforms has made these services push for an even better content lineup at an even lower cost.

The only edge that cable TV had over streaming was live broadcasting, but with the invention of mediums like IP TV and streaming apps from major cable providers, this edge is also lost. Now viewers can watch live TV including sports on these live TV apps without the hassles of cable TV and at a much lower price, which gives people all the more reasons to subscribe to streaming and ditch cable TV. 

Summary

The diverse content lineup and affordable cost are two of the major reasons why streaming is taking a lead on its cable counterparts. The push of streaming to overthrow cable is evident more than ever before in the year of 2022, as in July this year for the first time in history streaming services overtook more viewers than cable. This may sound like the beginning of the end for cable TV as many trade analysts have predicted, but whether you want to shift to this medium as your sole entertainment option is a whole other question. 

Cable TV is indeed a dying industry but it will at least take a decade more for that to happen. Ultimately, it depends on you whether you want to switch to streaming now or in the future when this service has improved itself to overcome all its shortcoming and become the ultimate medium of entertainment. At the moment if you don’t need an extensive channel lineup, then you probably don’t need a cable TV. You can thus remain subscribed if you prefer having a 300+ channel package and watching sports and premium movie channels like HBO.