Enough streaming services: do we cut the cable?

Cable television has entertained us for decades and a large proportion of people still entertains, almost every person has a certain nostalgic memory when watching television via cable. Yet at the same time there are people who cancel their subscription to this variant of television.

On demand

The reason for this is that more and more on-demand services are being added with good content, which means that people are more likely to choose to watch them. The big advantage is that you do not have to watch commercials, that your program is not interrupted and that you do not have to wait a week for a new episode (usually). So there are many plus points compared to traditional television.

Moreover, traditional television has the disadvantage that it works via cable and therefore cannot be viewed on your telephone. Watching on the road is therefore excluded, while you can access all streaming services wherever you are on your phone. You have a lot more control over what you watch. You do not have to wait for what you just get presented, you choose exactly whether you want to watch a horror movie or a fantasy series.

Sport is a challenge

The only thing that you might miss by not using cable TV anymore is watching football matches and other sporting events. Often there is a possibility to find it online, but often not with official streaming channels. Especially at football matches, those expensive licenses are very important.

The Formula 1 organization decided last year to make streaming via the internet possible for everyone. Furthermore, there is now a lot that Netflix has taken over from television: even The Voice-like vocal shows can now be found on it, which means that it offers much more than films and series alone. Cooking competitions are no stranger to the streaming platform, which means that the only thing that may offer cable television as an advantage is current events and sports. However, current affairs on television are often a bit late: most of the time you have already read the news on the internet.

Cut the cable

Things are going a bit slower in the some European countries, but in America many people choose to “cut” their cables. Whereas in 2015 79 percent of American households still had a TV subscription, in 2018 that will be just 67 percent. Now that number will be even lower, partly due to the arrival of Apple TV + and Disney +. However, now a generation is growing that immediately uses streaming services, so that television will ultimately be viewed less and less linearly via cable.