Report: About a Million People Pulled the Plug on Cable in 2011

Couch potatoes are discovering that it doesn't make sense to keep forking over money to cable companies when they can simply stream the shows they want to watch, when they want to watch them. It's not just a handful of TV viewers cutting the cord, either. According to a research report by The Convergence Consulting Group, LTD., around 2.65 million pay TV subscribers have ditched their cable or satellite provider in favor of Web-based content since 2008.

Over a million pay TV subscribers cut the cord in 2011 alone. By 2012, the research group estimates that cord cutters will reach 3.58 million large, which represents 3.6 percent of the pay TV community.


It's not just services like Netflix and Hulu that are taking customers away from pay TV services. Inexpensive movie rental kiosks by Redbox and Blockbuster also play a factor in the decision to disconnect from cable or satellite TV. The problem for cable is that there are so many options out there, from Redbox to Netflix, to downloadable apps and browser-based streaming. Factor in ubiquitous broadband and it starts to look even more grim for cable.

Do you still subscribe to cable or are you all-in with streaming video these days?