The 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show on Jan. 6 featured a number of weird contraptions. All kinds of overpriced gadgets, from drones to smart watches, battled for attention with electric cars and 3D printers.
While most of the show featured niche technology only interesting to trendy technology hipsters and people with fat wallets, Dish Network announced an Internet television service called Sling TV which put the nail in the coffin for cable TV, especially for college students.
I can count the number of students I know who have cable subscriptions not already included with their apartment on one hand. The hand looks like a fist. I don’t know anybody who’s dumb enough to spend their own money on cable.
College students get all the entertainment they need from Netflix, Hulu and similar services. It’s cheaper and less restrictive than signing away your soul to Cox Communications.
The only exclusives cable has held on to so far are live news and sports under networks like CNN and ESPN. Young Americans live in constant fear of not knowing whether Tom Brady is probable for the Colts game or where the next Malaysian plane went down.
Fear not, information-hungry youth. For $20 a month, cheaper than even Cox’s most basic package, Sling TV streams both CNN and ESPN, along with 10 other channels.
In addition, 2015 will be the year HBO finally begins to offer HBO GO as a separate service. At least I won’t have to keep using my friend’s parents’ sister’s niece’s cousin’s account.
Pay TV services are already losing users, and consumers have responded by cutting their cords. Last November, a study from Leichtman Research Group found the 13 largest pay TV companies, including Comcast and DirecTV, lost 150,000 subscribers in the third quarter last year.
It’s not hard to see why people are jumping ship. Cable TV is saturated with some of the most derivative, culturally devoid pieces of production ever conceived of. If I have to listen to Kris Jenner talk about how she can’t jump rope because of her bladder issues one more time, I’ll barbeque Mike the Tiger.
When I log in to Netflix, the grass is much greener. Originally produced Emmy award-winning series like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” stand next to cult classic films like “Trainspotting” and “Clerks.”
On top of cord cutters, there’s another cute term which Comcast can’t kill. ‘Cord nevers’ are those, like myself and many other students who’ve never paid for cable and don’t plan to any time soon. For these people, cable TV is an outdated model based on even more outdated technology.
The essential problem with cable TV goes beyond a cost analysis of the most bang for your buck. The structure of network TV channel programming doesn’t live up to the standards of millennials. No, Comedy Central, I don’t want to wait until two in the morning to watch Dave Chappelle uncensored.
If I had a cable TV-specific crystal ball to see into the future, the only people I’d see still slaving away to Cox will be those doing it for nostalgic purposes. It’ll be the new vinyl record. Enthusiasts will “ooh” and “aah” over the vintage 1998 copper plated steel wire their friend just scored at the thrift store. Either that, or Cox will be solely funded from the bank accounts of stoners who forgot to call and cancel.
James Richards is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from New Orleans.