In a short follow-up to our blog from Monday about cutting ties to the cable tv gods, Yahoo news is reporting that cable providers showed a net loss on subscribers in the 2nd quarter of 2010. With a net loss of over 216,000 subscribers.
While this isn’t an alarming trend with pay for TV still having over 100 million loyal subscribers it could prove to be the tip of the sword (or iceberg) when it comes to how you get your TV. With more and more TV’s getting hooked up to the net in one fashion or another, is the era of cable TV nearing an end?
Think about how you used to view TV ten years ago for a second. Usually, you had your shows that you watched, and you made sure you were home to watch it. If you were tech savvy enough you would program your VCR (yeah, we said it) to record the show for you. Fast forward just a decade and nearly everyone has a DVR in their house. Not only can you watch more TV, but you watch it when you want. Remember the days when you sat through at 2:30 block of commercials? Shoot, that happens little in households today.
Our point being, home entertainment is changing drastically. Gone are the days of the video store. Gone are the days where you have to be home to watch that show. Today are the days that you can choose more effectively what you watch. More and more people are choosing to forgo first run TV and catch it on disc or instant streaming devices.
This could prove to be an alarming trend for advertisers as well. The current mediums of advertising are becoming archaic at best. Radio ad sales are down because no one listens to the radio anymore. Just as the internet is killing the newspaper, expect this next wave to hurt the TV advertising revenues as well over the next decade. But expect it to hurt the small business the most in getting the word out. Whereas large companies can sponsor that 30 second ad on Hulu, it isn’t feasible for smaller companies.
We are not saying that these things are a bad thing, it is just the next evolution in the cycle.
