Television is still one of the most efficient ways to reach a broad audience. Although internet influencers can get more views on a TikTok or YouTube video, they still want the legitimacy of being on TV broadcasts.
Ironically, traditional cable could very well make a comeback for the same reason it lost to streaming: convenience.
In the 2010s, cord cutting got very popular as people realized they could subscribe to a service like Netflix for $4.99/month. They may not get to see their favorite shows live, but they could watch the full series archives through streaming.
A lot of graphs show cord-cutting becoming more popular. But there are a ton of asterisks to keep in mind.
Traditional pay TV means buying the packages from your cable provider. But services like YouTube, Sling, and Hulu offer IPTV (live TV over the internet). Of course, none of these services is actually considered IPTV, as it is a whole category to itself.
You can easily pay as much (or more) for these internet-based cable services as traditional cable. The only difference is instead of the locally controlled cable TV lines, you’re using the locally controlled cable internet lines. Odds are you’re still paying the same company for both.
And now streaming is so popular, that there is exclusive content scattered everywhere. Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney, Paramount, Peacock, Hulu, and others have exclusive content. And they all occasionally raise prices. If you were to pay for each of the services listed, your monthly bill can quickly get out of control.
That’s before even getting to the premium cable content that also functions as individual streaming services, like HBOMax, ESPN Plus, etc., along with every individual networks like ABC, CNBC, etc having their own online proprietary streaming service.
So, now we have a very disjointed and decentralized streaming landscape. And your streaming bill could very easily start to rival your mortgage. This environment also puts cable companies and smart TV manufacturers in a position to make things easier.
I had Comcast/Xfinity for a few years and was paying for cable for the first time in over a decade just to see how it holds up. I got Peacock for free, along with access to every individual channel’s app. It was very convenient to have a guide that made navigating everything easier. But it still couldn’t hold up to what I get with Plex.
I’ve had a lifetime pass for Plex Premium for over a decade. It’s the best lifetime deal I ever bought (don’t get me started on what a waste of time and money AppSumo is).
People are annoyed at the changes over the years, but I overall love it. I have a media server with all my own locally stored media. And it has a lot of free content, much like Roku. On top of that, it integrates any streaming services I use, can accommodate an antenna or satellite feed, and I can easily pull in media streams from wherever I want.
Basically, it’s one interface to navigate across all forms of media I have. That’s a feature cable used to provide, but it’s a lot harder for them these days. And unlike our app stores where two companies (Apple and Alphabet) duopolized who we pay for content across all services, there’s no single winning platform for streaming.
There are dozens of companies trying their own thing. Smart TV manufacturers are more likely to win this war than cable providers. But I wouldn’t fully count out cable TV anytime soon. It’s not going away until those companies that still control the infrastructure for your internet access find a way to replace those profits.
With any luck, it’ll mean negotiating with all the streaming services to bundle as many as possible into a cheaper monthly rate.
Otherwise, piracy is more convenient, and these services face a new era of pirates.