According to this report in Media Daily News, the number of people paying for TV in the U.S. grew by 3% last year, to 99.9 million. That's good news for me in the TV business because everyone over here is fairly terrified that "cord cutting" in favor of watching free TV online might catch on before a business model to support it comes along.
The increase to nearly 100 million comes as the popularity of online video continues to expand. Plus, Hulu and ESPN are offering premium product for free — at least for now — that is prompting some fear that people may drop a pay-TV subscription entirely, known as "cord-cutting."
This may be a one-time affair due to the transition from analog to digital TV though. We'll have to see what happens next year.
Satellite, Telco TV On Rise, Cable Losing Subscribers (via TV by the Numbers)
