Image: Netflix
This was a banner year for cord cutters.According to new data released Thursday by digital research firm eMarketer, an estimated 17 percent of US households will no longer pay for a traditional pay TV subscription by the end of 2015. The chief reason? There's now a ton of great streaming video services available, obviating the need to pay for a bloated cable or satellite bundle just to be able to watch Game of Thrones or Guy's Grocery Games.Take HBO Now. Released in April of this year, the streaming video service costs $15 per month and not only hosts first-run programming like Game of Thrones and Last Week, Tonight, but also grants access to the network's vast library of original content. Yes, why don't I spend the next three hours watching old episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm?And though HBO Now was initially exclusively available on Apple devices, the service can now be found on just about every streaming device worth its salt, including the Roku, Amazon's Fire TV, and Chromecast, Google's $35 wonder that has given me the gift of Japanese professional wrestling on my TV.In a similar vein, in July, rival premium network Showtime launched its own streaming video service called Showtime Now. For about $11 per month, you can watch shows like Homeland and Ray Donovan on your TV or mobile device. And just like HBO Now, Showtime Now also includes access to its back catalogue of original programming like Weeds and Nurse Jackie.Premium cable networks weren't the only ones to give cord cutters reasons to celebrate. In February Dish Network launched Sling TV, a $20 per month service that includes access to a handful of cable channels like ESPN, Food Network, HGTV, and CNN that can be watched on just about every streaming device under the sun (except the Apple TV, though there's an iOS app). I'm a happy Sling TV customer, mostly—I do wish there was less buffering during peak times, but I'm happy to part with $20 to see episode after episode of House Hunters.Sony even got into the streaming game this year with its PlayStation Vue service. Similar to Sling TV, PlayStation Vue delivers a number of channels over the internet to your PS4. Vue was criticized for being a tad on the expensive side—prices start at $50 per month—and for only being available in a select number of cities, so make sure the channels up on offer are worth your while.Existing streaming video services also had a great year this year. Netflix added new original content like Narcos, Beasts of No Nation, and Jessica Jones to its familiar diet of House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, while Hulu won over comedy nerds everywhere by securing the rights to every single episode of Seinfeld. Amazon's Transparent won an Emmy, while The Man in the High Castlewon my heart.Given all of this, the question may not why consumers are ditching cable, but why aren't they ditching it even faster than they already are?
Advertisement