More media consumers are cutting the cable cord | McClatchy - 0 views
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The vast majority of Americans – 95 percent – still watch television using traditional cable or satellite options, according to Nielsen. But the number of households that choose to opt out of cable or satellite TV is on the rise, from 2 million in 2007 to 5 million in 2013, Nielsen’s data show.
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“This scares the bejesus out of the cable and satellite people,” said Jim Barry, a spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association in Arlington, Va. “I think it’s going to change the business model.”
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A main driver behind the high cost of cable and satellite in recent years is the expensive license fees networks pay sports leagues to broadcast their games. The cost gets passed on to consumers to pay for the “bundles” of channels they get with their cable satellite subscriptions, whether they plan to watch sports or not.
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Aereo relies on tiny antennas located in the company’s data centers that pick up local channels’ signals and beam them over the Internet to customers. For a monthly membership of $8 to $12, Aereo customers can watch the channels streaming live online or save them on virtual digital video recorders for later.
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TV networks have responded: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS are suing Aereo, claiming that its service violates copyright law by selling access to their content without their permission. A federal appeals court ruled in Aereo’s favor earlier this year,