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Peak Cable TV: 2001!

2001 was the year when the largest percentage of US households were subscribing to Cable TV service (71%).  Since then, the CATV subscriber percentage has fallen... and precipitously.

Peak Cable wasn't in 2015.  It wasn't in 2008.  It was in 2001!

What is worse, by 2023 the households subscriber number had fallen to 34.7%.  That's right, half off its high water mark.  And is has continued to plummet since then.

Why have so many people left cable TV? No doubt Cable TV's continued sky-high pricing convinced a lot of people to cut the cord and instead go to streaming services.  High base prices, ever-rising special fees, unavoidable rental costs, and scam-oriented "discount bundles" have all conspired to make the typical Cable TV bill run well over $100 each and every month.

The Cable TV value proposition simply failed.

So what's next for Cable TV?  I suspect no resurgence and a continued slow decay.  The people who are still on Cable TV simply don't have any plans to change.  The remaining cable TV subscribers will drop their plans after they die, or after their kids take over their finances and move them to an old age home.

That might take a while, but it won't take forever.  The group with the most Cable TV subscriptions are those over 65 years old. 

Welcome to the long and slow death of Cable TV. It may have 20 years left in it, but it definitely isn't going to get any prettier.  More and more cable channels will focus their programming and advertising on the elderly.  After all, that is their primary audience.

Sources:  https://www.tvb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/OTA_Penetration.jpg , https://www.statista.com/statistics/322958/pay-tv-penetration-rate-usa/


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