2017 has been a great year for cord cutting! As we approach the halfway mark of 2017, I want to take a moment to look forward at what I think will happen next as a lot is about to happen in 2017.
Prediction #1 Live TV Streaming
Live TV streaming has been the hottest topic in cord cutting for some time now. Soon there will be more than 10 live TV streaming services when just 2 years ago there was only one: Sling TV. Now you have DIRECTV NOW, PlayStation Vue, Hulu, YouTube TV, and more.
With cable companies such as Comcast and Verizon FiOS jumping into the live TV effort, we are likely about to see the market get very heated…
My prediction is that we will see at least one live TV service fail in the second half of 2017 and a live TV service make a serious push to more flexibility in channel lineup.
The market is currently too crowded and soon more services will launch. Someone won’t make it. The only question is which service. Sling TV is for now safe because it holds a large subscriber lead. The question is around some of the new smaller services that are coming on the market recently. One of them won’t make it.
I don’t think we will see true à la carte TV in 2017. Though we may see a build-your-own package of 10 channels for example. That is likely to be the first step on its way to à la carte TV.
Prediction #2 Streaming Players
The streaming player war is heating up and is moving into smart TVs. Apple, Google, and Amazon all have new smart players in the works, and Roku has new TVs and maybe even a new streaming player.
The question now is which will win the second half of 2017. For my money it is likely to be Roku for one main reason. Roku has a very nice line of new smart TVs with 4K Dolby Vision HDR. They look nice and have an amazing picture at a great price.
Roku also has several great sub $50 streaming players. The sub $50 streaming player market is the fastest-selling market, and Roku has a solid lead followed by Amazon’s Fire Stick; however, the stock shortages of the Fire Stick will likely not be fixed any time soon.
While Apple and Amazon both have new players coming out late in 2017, Roku has a lot of time to build on its lead before Apple comes out with its new 4K player.
My Way Out There Prediction…
In 2017 NFL Sunday Ticket will be sold online without DIRECTV maybe as a standalone maybe as part of DIRECTV NOW.
What 2017 cord cutting predictions do you have? Leave us a comment and let everyone know.
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