(diaper)
Right now, the average monthly cable bill — not including any bundled phone or internet services — is around $86. But industry analysts say the non-stop slap fights between cable companies and content providers is only going to send that price soaring in the years to come.
A new report from the NPD Group says that even though wages have flattened in recent years, cable prices have continued to increase by 6% every year. And with those carriage fee disputes only resulting in higher prices for subscribers, NPD predicts that by 2015, the average cable bill will be $123 and will soar to $200 by 2020.
“As pay-TV costs rise and consumers’ spending power stays flat, the traditional affiliate-fee business model for pay-TV companies appears to be unsustainable,” a rep for NPD tells the NY Post.
Cable bills to pass $200 a month by 2020: industry forecast [NY Post]
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People might be interested in what the government forcing some cooperation onto broadcasters does in the UK for free over the air TV: http://www.freeview.co.uk/
No one here actually understands how cable companies work do they?
I work for a large cable company, and I just wanna put this out there. We know Pay TV is dying. Every quarter it turns a smaller and smaller profit. Between rising provider rates, real competition from the Satellite boys, and lower subscription numbers the amount we make on TV services is a fraction these days.
Internet and media delivery solutions are where the money is at. DVR’s (that aren’t affected by the digitally embedded DRM,) home media server solutions (Ultra-TV, any room DVR, Slingboxes,) and someone to administer this network, someone you can call when things go wrong are things we’re offering now. Faster internet, alternate delivery methods, and more variety are what we focus on now. As the internet has spread over the past few years almost all of our money has gone into upgrading and enhancing the internet portion of our service. the ability to offer reliable phone and things like On-Demand are by products of those upgrades.
The issue most people are going to have is that while currently the video subscribers foot most of the bill for network maintenance and upkeep, as those subscriber numbers continue to fall, someone (IE Internet customers without bundles) will be picking up that slack.
What we offer isn’t a charity, you can act indignant and mighty all you want, but Hulu, Roko, and Netflix Streaming don’t work to well without internet. Just food for thought the next time you cry for ala-carte pricing. the 5 dollars a month you want to spend on ESPN and Fox Sports has to cover plant infrastructure as well at provider costs, and our bottom lines.
You know what’s crazy is the cable companies here in Sweden have managed a la carte pricing just fine. If I want cable I can choose a package of say 10 channels a month (I choose the channels) and next month if I want to switch the channels I can. Course our internet is a lot faster and cheaper as well the only drawback is learning that strange Swedish language
Another reason to think about going expat.
The ONLY reason you are still in business is because you monopolize the areas where you operate. If people could go elsewhere for internet they would.
We know you don’t operate a charity. So why don’t you just up and die like a failed business should instead of buying off politicians and strangling other businesses with more integrity?
Shoot for the moon, dick heads. Never had a cable bill, never will. I get more than my fill of annoying commercials just browsing the Internet — no need to pay for more of the same.
It’s amazing how much sway TV has over people.
Imagine a world where everyone canceled and went outside.
>200 a month
haha, no. I only have basic cable for the cable modem. if prices like that came to be, I’d switch to DSL and cancel cable entirely.
My guess, by 2020 something different will be here
Heck I left satelite when I was paying $60 a month. Don’t look like I’ll be back anytime soon.
this doesn’t matter. I’ll probably die between today and then. if I don’t, i should get cable to celebrate!
I just cancelled my boost plus and got regular speed back for the internet and I cancelled the cable phone service and got ooma.com for 5- month. I knocked the bill from 130- to 75- a month. If I kill the TV and just do the internet I can knock it down to 30- month
the free market leads me to putlocker and torrents.
I don’t believe that cable will exist in its current form in 2020.
Let it soar…then I can get into another debate with a broke person that ‘worked all my life and have nothing’…but cable TV….
I have not watched in 15 years and I do not think that I am actually missing anything…
*cough* Netflix *cough*
*Completely Freaking Out*
Seriously!? We budget $200 a month for gas, electric, and water for a family of three. Most months we don’t even have to spend the full $200. We don’t have cable.
With a decent down payment on a used car an additional car payment would be $200 a month.
You could easily support another child on $200 a month – just shut off your cable.
$200 a month into a savings account – even with low interest will do more good in your retirement years than an episode of true blood.
Well, I suppose by the time this happens everyone will just buy the episodes of shows they want off of itunes or wait for the dvd’s to rent. Or just download everything illegally.
If this happens, we will cancel cable and just watch DVDs when we want to use the TV.
Now all we have to do is to stop cable companies from monopolizing their regions and/or suing to squash local government’s attempts at installing free municipal wifi.
Thus the reason I torrent all the shows I want to watch. If cable prices were anywhere close to reasonable, I’d happily get it. Is it right what I am doing? Nope. But, just like CD’s, offer crap on the market for unreasonable prices, people turn to other means to get their product. That being said, I do buy Blu-rays of all the stuff I actually enjoy or want to watch again.
+1.
uTorrent and kat.ph
And this is the kind of pricing model they want to implement on your broadband service as well.
Cut the cable about 3 months ago. With so many free alternatives now, I doubt I’ll ever go back.
Now I just need to find an alternative for internet service. Any ideas?
prediction: Nobody pays for cable tv by 2020
Sucks when Comcast is the only web here. We’re stuck.
We’re over 200 with 3 hdtvs.
for $200 people will just buy an HD antenna and grab the shows off the air. no way i’d pay 200 JUST for tv. i’d rather watch nothing than pay that much
At the same time, switching to a la carte will cost about the same because the same content providers will want to maintain their revenue levels. What also pushes up the cost of tv is how much the content cost to broadcast. It cost ESPN over $100 million per monday night football game. CBS will earn about $250 million in syndication fees from two and a half men.
Could reach $200? When i had comcast between TV and Internet i was paying $196/month, then with Cablevision/Optimum i was paying $210 for TV and Internet. I recently switched to Dish Network now with TV and Cable Internet throug Optimum i pay $134 after the first year it goes up to $163