[george]

Not that I disagree in the long term, but the data I've seen this year shows a drop in cable subscriptions but it is mostly explained by a move to satellite or fiber, not pure cable-cutting as in only using Netflix and piracy. I'd be curious if you could refute this.

Netflix isn't the only viable legal alternative, right?  Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and devices like Roku, Samsung smart tv, xbox1 are all making it easier and easier to watch content on the big screen.  I can't believe there'd be so many companies trying to get into that space if there wasn't demand on the part of consumers.

This feels a lot like the phenomenon of people abandoning their land-line telephones.  I still have mine because I'm paranoid about brain cancer from my cellphone, but I'm definitely in the minority.  9 out of every 10 calls I receive are telemarketing.  I haven't ever even tuned to 90% of the channels available to me.  The only things keeping my cable subscription active are college football and my DVR'd episodes of Elementary and Doctor Who.  I think I could get Elementary on Hulu and all but the most recent season of Doctor Who is available on Netflix. 

At the end of the day, if every Stanford game was on the pac-12 network and if the pac-12 network was available to online only users, I would abandon my cable subscription in a heartbeat. 

[george]

Not that I disagree in the long term, but the data I've seen this year shows a drop in cable subscriptions but it is mostly explained by a move to satellite or fiber, not pure cable-cutting as in only using Netflix and piracy. I'd be curious if you could refute this.

Netflix isn't the only viable legal alternative, right?  Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and devices like Roku, Samsung smart tv, xbox1 are all making it easier and easier to watch content on the big screen.  I can't believe there'd be so many companies trying to get into that space if there wasn't demand on the part of consumers.

This feels a lot like the phenomenon of people abandoning their land-line telephones.  I still have mine because I'm paranoid about brain cancer from my cellphone, but I'm definitely in the minority.  9 out of every 10 calls I receive are telemarketing.  I haven't ever even tuned to 90% of the channels available to me.  The only things keeping my cable subscription active are college football and my DVR'd episodes of Elementary and Doctor Who.  I think I could get Elementary on Hulu and all but the most recent season of Doctor Who is available on Netflix. 

At the end of the day, if every Stanford game was on the pac-12 network and if the pac-12 network was available to online only users, I would abandon my cable subscription in a heartbeat.