Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Paying for Bundled TV or Cord Cutting?

TelevisionImage by largeprime via Flickr

Ryan Lawler over at GigaOm has an interesting post up regarding pay TV services. The high-level point that he's emphasizing is that kids and younger adults are not paid subscribers to a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD) - basically Cable TV, and the like. The post's headline declares, "The Children are our Future, and They're not Paying for TV" (link below under Related Articles).

When I read that, I immediately said to myself, there was no paid TV when I was a kid. My parents didn't pay for TV until some time in the 1980's. Paid TV is a relatively recent phenomenom.

The GigaOm blog post goes on to cover some interesting data points regarding the trend towards a la carte programming - or at least consumers' demands for a la carte programming. Who needs 500 stations (or wants to pay for them) when there are only a handful of shows that are of interest?

And that's the reason I've cut the cable TV cord. In our home we do pay for programming, but we get it through streaming services (like Netflix). I'm no young adult - I have two young children - but there's plenty of content to keep everyone entertained.

There's a strong trend towards unbundling of content programming. And it's happening whether or not the cable TV, satellite dish, or telephone companies want to participate. Just like the music business, kids will pay for the content if it's packaged and priced in an appealing manner.
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