The thing is, advertisements aren't the sole reason that people cut the cord.
Right now, I have over 500 channels (well, I'm on Cincinnati FiOptics, but still), and there's maybe 10 I actually like watching. I'm currently watching NCIS, because Science has been playing the same All-American Makers and How It's Made episodes over and over again since Sunday, with the same episode of one show playing 3 times since last night (I love the shows, but I want to watch something different from them). The History Channel hasn't played anything other than American Pickers or Pawn Stars when I've checked this past week (I got HD cable last week for the internet bundle). Alaskan Bush People was playing all day yesterday on Discovery, and Alaskan State Troopers has been playing on Nat Geo way too much.
To make a long story short: there's nothing on TV. My family spends more time flipping through channels, trying to find something to watch, than they do actually watching TV. Most of the channels I watch show rerun after rerun of the same 3 vapid shows every single day, giving me no variety in my options when I turn on the cable box. The On Demand services I've had, from both Cincinnati Bell and Time Warner, have a handful of shows from each channel - each show having 3 random, spaced out, episodes available to watch. In the end, I'm left with no control over what I want to watch, and I am forced to either watch some horrible shows until something decent comes on, or find something else to do.
The reason people are cutting the cord is because cable programming is horrible, and isn't worth the however much a month they charge for it. Netflix costs considerably less than cable, and offers users the ability to choose what whatever they'd like to watch, any time that they please. There might be a delay between cable releases and Netflix releases, but it's a fair trade-off for the freedom that the service provides. Cable Companies have tried to compete by offering their own On Demand services, but in order to get the full functionality, they would have to pay money on top of the already expensive cable bill. Imagine paying for Netflix, only to be forced to pay even more just to watch a full season of a show, or any movie.
Offering HBO to Internet-only subscribers, but it's still not enough to beat Netflix. Cutting the number of ads is hardly doing anything for people that have switched to online services, because it's still an decision between pay $10/mo for no ads - or pay at least 5x that much to watch ads (although, less) and have no choice over what to watch. As kxh said: It's just too little, too late.
The thing is, advertisements aren't the sole reason that people cut the cord.
Right now, I have over 500 channels (well, I'm on Cincinnati FiOptics, but still), and there's maybe 10 I actually like watching. I'm currently watching NCIS, because Science has been playing the same All-American Makers and How It's Made episodes over and over again since Sunday, with the same episode of one show playing 3 times since last night (I love the shows, but I want to watch something different from them). The History Channel hasn't played anything other than American Pickers or Pawn Stars when I've checked this past week (I got HD cable last week for the internet bundle). Alaskan Bush People was playing all day yesterday on Discovery, and Alaskan State Troopers has been playing on Nat Geo way too much.
To make a long story short: there's nothing on TV. My family spends more time flipping through channels, trying to find something to watch, than they do actually watching TV. Most of the channels I watch show rerun after rerun of the same 3 vapid shows every single day, giving me no variety in my options when I turn on the cable box. The On Demand services I've had, from both Cincinnati Bell and Time Warner, have a handful of shows from each channel - each show having 3 random, spaced out, episodes available to watch. In the end, I'm left with no control over what I want to watch, and I am forced to either watch some horrible shows until something decent comes on, or find something else to do.
The reason people are cutting the cord is because cable programming is horrible, and isn't worth the however much a month they charge for it. Netflix costs considerably less than cable, and offers users the ability to choose what whatever they'd like to watch, any time that they please. There might be a delay between cable releases and Netflix releases, but it's a fair trade-off for the freedom that the service provides. Cable Companies have tried to compete by offering their own On Demand services, but in order to get the full functionality, they would have to pay money on top of the already expensive cable bill. Imagine paying for Netflix, only to be forced to pay even more just to watch a full season of a show, or any movie.
Offering HBO to Internet-only subscribers, but it's still not enough to beat Netflix. Cutting the number of ads is hardly doing anything for people that have switched to online services, because it's still an decision between pay $10/mo for no ads - or pay at least 5x that much to watch ads (although, less) and have no choice over what to watch. As kxh said: It's just too little, too late.