Survey: Free TV Use Up For The First Time In Years As Consumers Cut Pay TV Cord (http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/survey-free-tv-use-up-for-the-first-time-in-years-as-consumers-cut-pay-tv-cord/)

By DAVID LIEBERMAN; Executive Editor, Deadline | Monday June 6, 2011 @ 4:28pm

Cable cord-cutting may be a real phenomenon after all. For the first time in four years there's been an increase in the number of homes that just rely on antennas to receive programs from local broadcast stations according to research firm Knowledge Networks' 2011 Ownership Survey and Trend Report. A survey of 3,343 people in March and April found that 15% of all homes now just depend on free TV, up from 14%. That puts the total number of broadcast-only viewers at 45.6 million people, up from 42 million last year. Knowledge Networks says that about 30% of the free-TV homes are pay TV cord cutters. Most said that they canceled their cable, satellite, or telco TV subscriptions because they wanted to save money.

Although the increase in free TV use is small, the fact that it grew at all could frighten some investors. A 1% drop in the number of pay TV subscribers would shave about 1% off the market value of the largest cable programmers including Time Warner, Viacom, Disney, News Corp, and CBS, analyst Laura Martin of Needham & Co estimated last year. Pay TV companies struggled for more than a year to reassure Wall Street that there's nothing to fear. Cord cutting concerns diminished at the end of the first quarter when cable, satellite and telco TV companies reported a slight uptick in their total subscribers.

The new figures also could complicate the Obama administration's effort to promote wireless broadband. The FCC has pointed to the declining use of over-the-air TV to justify its effort to coax broadcasters to give up airwave spectrum so it can be used to send data to smartphones, iPads, and other mobile devices. Last week the Consumer Electronics Association, which supports the administration's campaign, released a survey it took in December that said just 9% of all households strictly rely on free TV. Curiously, the trade group said that "Americans are not rushing to cancel pay TV services" because 76% said that they were "unlikely" to cut the cord within a year. The more telling statistic: 10% said that they were "likely" to do so and another 14% were on the fence.

I'm not surprised. You pay all that money for over 100 channels and you only use about 10 of them. All the cable channels are selling out so I don't watch many of them. If it wasn't for the sports and the fact that I can't get free tv because of the mountains around here, I'd get rid of it too.

For the last ten years Subscription Rates have consistantly risen, while the quality of what's being shown continues to head south. In all the years I have lived, I have NEVER seen ANY Company that does business in this manner stay in business for long. A lot of people I have talked to are considering doing what I did 4 1/2 years ago, discontinuing their Subscriptions to a Pay-TV Service. The two biggest complaints I hear are the very two that motivated me to "cut the cord", too many Commercials and too little variety. A House divided against itself cannot stand. Once people decide a product is no longer worth paying for, they'll stop paying for it and pursue alternate products. When this happens to the TV Industry, don't say I didn't warn you!

Cable is getting worse and free tv is getting better.
The choice for many is getting easier.

I think unless the cable companies get more flexible or in other words offer customers a way to pick and pay for only the channels they are interested in(or something similair)--they are going to sink like the Titanic.--I don't see them doing that however,in other words becoming more flexible. They already hit that iceberg and they still think their commercial filled trash is going to keep them afloat.

This article states that more people are "cord switching" rather than "cord cutting":

Total TV service subscribers grew grew by 475,000 in the first quarter of 2011, as subscribers continued to shift from cable providers to satellite (DBS) and TelcoTV providers. So the next time you read about “cord cutting”, at least for now, it’s still pretty much all “cord switching”.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/06/09/despite-cord-cutting-chatter-tv-service-subscribers-grew-by-475000-in-q1-2011/95229/

Thats true for me my Free TV use is way up but, my pay tv is up a lil bit so I guess I got two cords.