Cable TV Prices Continue to Rise

Consumers are Paying 40% More for Cable TV and Satellite Today Than They Were 5 years Ago

As more people opt to cut the cord, is it the pay TV industry's strategy to simply charge more from the customers that are left?

Price increases are a funny thing. When they happen slowly over time they are not as easily noticed. But when you look at pay TV prices from 5 years ago as the pictorial shows, a 40% jump is rather significant. Especially, since inflation and wages have been pretty much stagnant during this same period of time.

Pay TV No Longer The Only Game In Town

Much has happened in the last 5 years. Many consumers have gone through the worst recession in recent memory. This has taught them to become much more savvy with their money.

Technology has also advanced, broadband is more widely available and speeds have increased. Internet streaming television has taken off big time. Media streaming has matured and consumers now have more alternatives to traditional pay TV than ever before.

The industry has been changing quickly. Now it's empowered consumers that are driving this change. Manufacturers have also responded with a wide range of cord cutting devices. A pay TV industry that for years had no one to compete with and pretty much controlled and set their own prices, has now found itself in a world of hurt.

Media Streaming Giants of the New Age

A new era of television has arrived. Consumers now can choose what to watch and when to watch it. No longer are we held hostage by the pay TV giants who bombard us with a constant barrage of commercials, forcing us to watch while paying outrageous ever increasing monthly bills.

Media streamers have matured, Roku now has over 4,500 channels when back in 2011 it only had a few hundred. Their customer base has also exploded. At the end of 2015 Roku placed their media streamers in over a million homes.

Android TV media streamers from the popular Amazon Fire TV, the incredibly fast Nvidia Shield TV and a large collection of lower cost clones have also matured. Kodi has driven much of this boom especially with the ease of watching unlimited movies and TV shows by using a simple setup wizard. This has driven a huge pirate TV market for fully loaded boxes much to the chagrin of Kodi developers who are doing their best to block this in future updates.

Apple TV which started off strongly five years ago has dropped in popularity. For a company that had a strong track record of innovation and vision under the leadership of Steve Jobs, their Apple TV never became as popular and now is a distant fourth behind Roku, Chromecast and Android TV streamers in sales and popularity.

Cord Cutting Continues at a Healthy Pace

The outlook is even more bleak for the Pay TV industry. They are looking at losing close to a billion dollars this next year from cord cutters. See: Cord Cutters Could Cost The Cable Industry Almost $1 Billion

The cable TV industry has been trying to make changes to stem the tide. But for an industry that has spent years without needing to innovate or compete, this will not be easy.

Although, it has already had an impact and brought about money saving perks for pay TV customers who can now use a Roku box to watch cable channels on additional TVs without needing to pay extra costly cable box rental fees. This can be done by using their cable account login details. See: How to Watch Cable TV Channels on Roku

Streaming TV Bundles

Five years ago Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Video along with Vudu and iTunes were the only streaming TV services pretty much available. Now we have some good alternatives which offer live cable TV channels from no other than the cable TV and satellite companies trying to cash in on the action.

Sling TV from Dish has become popular as has Sony Play Station Vue. They both offer bundles of channels you can subscribe to at various prices depending on the channel package chosen.

Lower Cost and Free Alternatives

Many cord cutters would still rather look for free IPTV channels. Or simply watch100% Free Roku Channels.

The Trend Continues

Like death and taxes, it is almost certain that five years from now pay TV prices will have risen a lot more. Cable TV and satellite prices are expected raise again this year. If you have not yet decided to cut the cord, we urge you to have a look at our Antenna Guide and see how easy it is to get local Network channels over the air for free. While this may depend on your location. You may be able to receive 20 or 30 free channels with the installation of a simple over the air antenna.

Browse our website and you will find many great streaming TV websites and Roku channels to make cutting the cord as painless as possible. If you need help, be sure to join our awesome Roku and Streaming TV support group, Roku Rocks on Facebook.

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