At the start of the second quarter 2019, YouTube TV and DIRECTV NOW raised their prices by $10 a month. At the time many press groups rushed to report how this was the end of cord cutting as we know it and that people would be going back to cable TV.
Now we have hard numbers from AT&T and Comcast that show over 1 million new cord cutters canceled cable TV and didn’t replace it even with the price hikes. Comcast and AT&T are losing over 11,010 subscribers every single day. If this continues, AT&T and Comcast will lose 4 million subscribers over the next year. Even with these losses Comcast saw cable revenue up 3.9% to $14.5 billion.
According to a report in Fortune, the average cable TV bill now costs $107 a month. This is just for TV—not including internet or phone. With YouTube TV and DIRECTV NOW both starting at $50 a month, you can clearly see why cord cutting is continuing to grow.
With current growth, cord cutting is on track to set an all-time record in 2019 even with several services raising their price. What we are seeing is that even as cord cutting is raising prices cable TV is raising their prices even faster. Fios alone raised the price of its DVR by $7 a month. That does not include the typical price hike on the core plans that almost every cable TV company offers every month.
Did the YouTube TV and DIRECTV NOW price hikes change how you cut the cord? Leave us a comment and let us know.
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