Is it me, or are there more and more people cutting the cord? Cord cutters are people who are abandoning traditional cable TV services. And who can blame them? My AT&T Uverse service bundle is around $200 a month. I get home phone (who needs it), high speed internet (I need it) and a good selection of TV networks. But let’s be real here. I don’t have the “gold” package. Hell, I don’t even have HBO!
While at Costco last night, I noticed that they are aggressively signing up new subscribers for DirectTV. People were waiting to speak with the DirectTV reps. Hell, I even thought about it. After all, AT&T is not exactly cutting me a sweetheart deal on my bundle. The buzz around the DirectTV display was all about how much money people could save every month. And it’s a considerable chunk of change.
While checking out, I struck up a conversation with my Costco cashier. She’s 20-something years old, and she just cut the cord. Completely. No cable, no internet, no landline. And she’s happy as a clam. A clam with 200 extra clams a month in her wallet. She gets all the internet she needs on her iPhone. Even movies and TV. And she watches lots of TV, gets Netflix movies, and views lots of YouTube videos.
So how does Nielsen track her viewing? They don’t. But that will start to change when Nielsen starts measuring mobile viewing in the 2014-15 TV season. The software is being coded now. So people like my Costco cashier who are big mobile viewers will count when it comes to audience measurement. This could deliver a seismic hit on traditional media, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Are you a mobile viewer? Do you watch Hulu, Netflix, Youtube or TV on an iPad, iPhone or any mobile device. Have you cut the cord? Are you considering it? Let me know. Here’s an article from Nielsen on their plans for ratings for mobile viewing.