I have a question from my readers. Is cutting the cord a trend in Canada? Let me relate why I am asking this.
Recently, I visited a client who wanted me to help him to set up a Roku streaming device to work with a service called Unlocator. Now you’re likely wondering what the latter is, in short if you pay them $50 a year Unlocator helps you to evade geographical blocks when it comes to streaming content by having you use their Domain Name Servers and for certain use cases a VPN service. That way you can for example use Hulu from downtown Toronto if you so choose. Or watch the BBC from Ottawa. Both of which you cannot normally get. Now what he was asking me to do wasn’t difficult, but in the process of setting this up I did notice that on his Roku were two channels that allowed him to get major US channels as well as local Canadian TV. Those channels were USTV Now which has plans that range from free to $39 a month, and CanadaTV which is $2 a month. So I quizzed him about his use case. He related to me that his goal was to “dump” Rogers as his cable provider as he didn’t see the value of spending the kind of money that Rogers is asking for him to watch TV. Plus he wanted to see the content that Rogers either makes it too difficult or to see because of cost, or simply isn’t available.
That made me think about cord cutting and why people decide to dump their cable company. I was under the impression that it was always a cost issue. And for many that is the case. Telco costs, be it cell phone, Internet, home phone or television are not exactly cheap with the incumbent telcos in Canada, and the so called “skinny” bundle for $25 a month that teclos are forced to offer to customers doesn’t address this at all. So I am sure that it drives people to look for other options to get their TV fix without breaking the bank. But access to the content that you want to see is another angle that I had not fully considered. At present, to get access to the shows that you want you pay through the nose for an “on demand” or premium service with your local telco, assuming that they even have the content that you’re looking for. There’s also the fact that the content that you want may not be available on streaming services like Netflix for example. That’s because the incumbent telcos own the content rights and make it difficult for you the consumer to get them in the manner that makes sense from an economic standpoint. Now there is CraveTV which is owned by Bell, and there was the now defunct Rogers/Shaw collaboration known as Shomi which improved access to this content to a degree. But the fact that neither had broad platform support so that any streaming device is supported doesn’t help their cause. By that I mean that CraveTV supports AppleTV, XBox, iOS devices, some Samsung Smart TVs, and web browsers which sounds good on the surface. But they fail to support devices like Roku which means they may be leaving money on the table.
Now, you’ll note that this person is paying to get access to the content that he wants. That’s important to note as there’s a narrative that people want this content for free. My belief is that consumers are willing to pay for the content that they want if it is easy to get and is fairly priced. If you look at the success of services like iTunes or Google Play selling music and movies to millions, that seems to support that belief. It also implies that if incumbent telcos position their pricing to a point where it takes away the incentive to go the route that this customer took, then perhaps we would not be having this conversation right now. But it seems that this isn’t happening and there’s no sign that incumbent telcos have any plans to move in that direction. Another data point is that a recent CRTC report says that fewer and fewer people access TV through cable or satellite. Subscriptions dropped from 69 to 60 per cent from 2011 to 2015. That’s because according to the report, younger Canadians are watching less TV via cable or satellite. That’s important because I feel that those young people are the canary in the coal mine. They’re going to cut the cord. Then tell their parents how to do the same (or perhaps do it for them), and then their parents will spread the word.
Net result? In my opinon, all of this means that incumbent telcos are basically doing everything possible to take themselves out of the TV market as clearly consumers are using other means to get the content that they want the way that they want it at what they perceive to be a fair price. Thus I think that cord cutting is a growing trend in Canada.
What do you think? Is cord cutting on the rise? Will you be dumping your cable company? What stops you from cutting the cord? I’d love to know and I would appreicate it if you could share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I’m sure that this will be a very interesting discussion.
Question: Cord Cutting In Canada – Is This Now A Trend?
Posted in Commentary with tags Canada, Telecom on November 21, 2016 by itnerdI have a question from my readers. Is cutting the cord a trend in Canada? Let me relate why I am asking this.
Recently, I visited a client who wanted me to help him to set up a Roku streaming device to work with a service called Unlocator. Now you’re likely wondering what the latter is, in short if you pay them $50 a year Unlocator helps you to evade geographical blocks when it comes to streaming content by having you use their Domain Name Servers and for certain use cases a VPN service. That way you can for example use Hulu from downtown Toronto if you so choose. Or watch the BBC from Ottawa. Both of which you cannot normally get. Now what he was asking me to do wasn’t difficult, but in the process of setting this up I did notice that on his Roku were two channels that allowed him to get major US channels as well as local Canadian TV. Those channels were USTV Now which has plans that range from free to $39 a month, and CanadaTV which is $2 a month. So I quizzed him about his use case. He related to me that his goal was to “dump” Rogers as his cable provider as he didn’t see the value of spending the kind of money that Rogers is asking for him to watch TV. Plus he wanted to see the content that Rogers either makes it too difficult or to see because of cost, or simply isn’t available.
That made me think about cord cutting and why people decide to dump their cable company. I was under the impression that it was always a cost issue. And for many that is the case. Telco costs, be it cell phone, Internet, home phone or television are not exactly cheap with the incumbent telcos in Canada, and the so called “skinny” bundle for $25 a month that teclos are forced to offer to customers doesn’t address this at all. So I am sure that it drives people to look for other options to get their TV fix without breaking the bank. But access to the content that you want to see is another angle that I had not fully considered. At present, to get access to the shows that you want you pay through the nose for an “on demand” or premium service with your local telco, assuming that they even have the content that you’re looking for. There’s also the fact that the content that you want may not be available on streaming services like Netflix for example. That’s because the incumbent telcos own the content rights and make it difficult for you the consumer to get them in the manner that makes sense from an economic standpoint. Now there is CraveTV which is owned by Bell, and there was the now defunct Rogers/Shaw collaboration known as Shomi which improved access to this content to a degree. But the fact that neither had broad platform support so that any streaming device is supported doesn’t help their cause. By that I mean that CraveTV supports AppleTV, XBox, iOS devices, some Samsung Smart TVs, and web browsers which sounds good on the surface. But they fail to support devices like Roku which means they may be leaving money on the table.
Now, you’ll note that this person is paying to get access to the content that he wants. That’s important to note as there’s a narrative that people want this content for free. My belief is that consumers are willing to pay for the content that they want if it is easy to get and is fairly priced. If you look at the success of services like iTunes or Google Play selling music and movies to millions, that seems to support that belief. It also implies that if incumbent telcos position their pricing to a point where it takes away the incentive to go the route that this customer took, then perhaps we would not be having this conversation right now. But it seems that this isn’t happening and there’s no sign that incumbent telcos have any plans to move in that direction. Another data point is that a recent CRTC report says that fewer and fewer people access TV through cable or satellite. Subscriptions dropped from 69 to 60 per cent from 2011 to 2015. That’s because according to the report, younger Canadians are watching less TV via cable or satellite. That’s important because I feel that those young people are the canary in the coal mine. They’re going to cut the cord. Then tell their parents how to do the same (or perhaps do it for them), and then their parents will spread the word.
Net result? In my opinon, all of this means that incumbent telcos are basically doing everything possible to take themselves out of the TV market as clearly consumers are using other means to get the content that they want the way that they want it at what they perceive to be a fair price. Thus I think that cord cutting is a growing trend in Canada.
What do you think? Is cord cutting on the rise? Will you be dumping your cable company? What stops you from cutting the cord? I’d love to know and I would appreicate it if you could share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I’m sure that this will be a very interesting discussion.
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