Cord Cutting Surges: Is The Death of Cable TV Near?

For years now, Cord Cutting has been a growing force in the world of TV. Now more Americans are cord cutters than those who subscribe to cable TV. This comes according to a report from Cord Cutter News citing a report from Samba TV.

According to Samba TV 5.9 million Americans canceled cable TV in 2022. That works out to be just over 16,000 canceling cable TV every single day. This is the largest drop ever, according to the Leichtman Research Group.

Just this week, Verizon reported that it lost 335,000 Fios TV customers in the 1st quarter of 2023, down about 9.6% from the year before. This works out to be about 3,600 subscribers canceling TV every day for Verizon.

Now it is reported that just 48% of Americans still pay for a traditional cable TV service. This means more Americans now are cord cutters or cord nevers than ever before.

With the growth of fees and cable TV bills, it is easy to understand why. Recently it was announced that Comcast would be raising the fees on a wide range of plans. Comcast’s Xfinity Broadcast TV Fee is going up 11% this year to $21.30. Back in 2016, these fees were just $5 a month. 

The cost of a TV box and remote will now be $10 a month, a 17% increase from $8.50 just a month ago.

All of these fees over the course of a year will add up to $715.80. It could be even higher as this assumes you are only paying for one TV box. If you have two TV boxes, your yearly fees will top $835. That is also before you pay for taxes and other fees imposed by the local, state, and federal governments. This is all before you even pay the bill for the TV subscription.

In 2012 95.2 million Americans paid for a pay-TV subscription. Now even with live TV streaming services that number is down to just 70.2 million in 2023.