Watch how kids consume media – I don’t know of a kid who would turn to a TV when they had a free moment of downtime. But what is more telling is that they don’t ever consider television – it isn’t even in their option tree of choices. If I were a Cable TV executive I’d be terrified.
I liken cable to the newspaper – my parents and my in-laws still read the newspaper for the news. My kids don’t touch it. I’m in the middle – still get the Sunday Globe – but the paper is becoming less and less of a good read. I’m to the point where I see the newspaper as more of a wasteful product (why cut trees to get old news?) than a resource. Every story that interests me finds its way to me online; I don’t need the newspaper to access content.
Cable television will end up like this – why pay for cable when I can just log into Netflix on my laptop, or stream movies to my big-screen, or watch the Sox game on YouTubeTV or Hulu? If I grew up never watching television, what is going to suddenly inspire me to put away my laptop and turn on cable?! There was a great article (on the Globe website!) earlier this year about how to cut the cable TV cord and not lose access to any content. For now you do end up saving a few bucks, although there is no way that will continue to happen. You’ll end up spending the same amount of money you do now, you’ll just get your content in a different way.
Cable TV is dying, long live WiFi.