Are Cable TV’s Days Numbered?
January 28, 2025
As Debbie and I work through plans for our new smart home build, entertainment and the supporting technologies is one of the major considerations. The rental home we moved into temporarily while we’re working through our project only had cable access for internet and TV so we were limited on options — until last summer when another local company ran fiber in our neighborhood. As the current site where we plan to build already has fiber it was a no-brainer to cut the cord and go exclusively with streaming services for TV.
We opted for YouTubeTV and haven’t regretted it one bit. As a matter of fact it’s a little ‘cable-ish’ in the aspect of channel overkill (as in channels we’ll never watch). We have other streaming services but YouTubeTV fills the bill where we used to use cable. We are so committed to going that direction with our entertainment planning that I’ve opted to not install coax cable in our new house at all.
And with other good reason. Cable has been so imbedded in Americans entertainment culture and daily life, that the mere thought of cable going the way of the dinosaur almost seems impossible. Almost.
I have to admit, the channel-surfing marathons can still happen with YouTubeTV but with the capability of editing the listing, I’ve put my favorites and most watched channels at the top. Just another flexibility of streaming services and why they’re burying cable. The warning signs have been there for years.
In the US, one of the countries with the highest number of pay TV subscribers worldwide, cord-cutting and other forms of consumer untethering have had a particularly visible impact on the TV media landscape. Since 2010, the pay TV penetration rate in the US has dropped from 88 to 64 percent — 27 percent of Americans and Canadians cut the cord since 2023. Looking ahead at the future of cable and streaming services:
- There will be 80 million cord-cutting US households by 2026.
- There will be 1.68 billion global SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) subscriptions by 2027.
- Adults ages 18 to 29 are the most prolific cord-cutters.
- 30% of Americans who currently have cable TV subscriptions say they are likely to cancel.
- 52% of cord-cutters say they don’t miss anything about cable TV.
So who’s still keeping cable alive? Sports fans who insist they need multiple specialty channels just to catch one game and procrastinators who can’t bring themselves to cancel that bundle deal. But at this point, cable TV’s fate is sealed, probably sometime around 2028.
Let Debbie and I know what your thoughts are regarding cable TV and streaming services. Do you agree with the current trends? Also share any other comments, DMs and emails as we really enjoy hearing from you.
For those following our smart home build project, we’ll be kicking off construction soon. The paperwork is all complete and now waiting on the builder to get his dirt crew onto our lot to scrape the vegetation, bring in additional dirt and then compact before starting the foundation work. Once we start we expect a 6–8 month build depending on weather so stay tuned as we bring you along with us on our build project.
Thanks again to all those following Debbie and I through our home building journey. It’s great to hear your success stories and suggestions as we move through the process. And if you like the content I’m posting each week, don’t forget to ‘Like’ and ‘Follow.’
