People sure love TV — but they don’t love their TV provider. Many cable executives have tried to pretend their industry isn’t in the middle of a monumental industry shift. Still, amidst consumers demanding more choice, a turbulent economy, and a global pandemic, cord-cutting is real and taking over.
Endless rate hikes, complicated contracts, extensive service fees, and a lack of focus on the customer are directly to blame. Contracts and rights agreements make television content prohibitively expensive and add a designed level of complexity that makes it just out of reach for many.
Experts expect 25 million U.S. households to cancel their pay-TV service over the next five years. And that’s on top of the 25 million that have already cut the cord since 2012.
Add the global pandemic that has thrown nearly every industry into disarray, created extensive unemployment, and caused businesses and consumers to re-evaluate almost everything. The pay-tv cost has helped spur many on the fence to make the digital leap and finally cut the cord. Based on a Summer 2020 Monscierge survey, the primary driver for hotels and boutiques during the remainder of 2020 is to save money. A bar in Arizona recently told The Wall Street Journal they “were cutting off their cable plan to save $1,600 a month.” For a 75 room hotel, the average cost for cable is at least $2,000 per month. Being able to reduce the on-going monthly cost would prove highly beneficial.
With hotels back open, they’re looking for every advantage possible. Leveraging over-the-air or Freeview packages for TV entertainment, streaming through providers like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and value-added services like built-in two-way messaging, recommendations, or a digital directory helps drive engagement and satisfaction. Not to mention it’s much more economically sound. A hotel saving $2,000 a month paying for pay-tv can devote that money to staffing, taxes, or other upkeep.
For premium TV to survive, it must continue to evolve. That means setting aside the complicated legal restrictions, engineered complexity, and finding a better way to package content. Consumers are already cutting the cord and hotels are starting to make the same leap.