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Another Sign of Outbound Marketing's Death: Cable TV Sees First Ever Decline in Subscribers

 

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In the world of advertising and outbound marketing, TV has been the undisputed king in large part because of an ever-growing audience. For the first time in the history of cable television, the industry is seeing a decline in paid subscribers. This chart from Business Insider illustrates the decline as reported by the firm SNL Kagan.

TV Subscriber stats resized 600

According to Kagan, the firm believes the decline in subscribers is due to poor economic conditions and not the rising online video market. This is despite the rise in the amount of video consumed on YouTube and Hulu and an economic downturn that began long before this reported decline.  Apple is rumored to be on the verge of releasing a new product that will bring video streaming and web applications to television sets. Should cable TV companies be worried about the future of their industry?

Marketing Takeaway

As more and more people consume content online through desktop and mobile devices, marketers will have to shift strategies to engage with changing audiences. As marketers, it is important to monitor customers' and prospects' behavior to determine how they are consuming information.

Have you noticed a changed in your customers' information consumption habits?

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comments Comments

Posted by Kipp Bodnar on Tue, Aug 24, 2010 @ 08:40 AM

COMMENTS

Regardless of the reasons cable companies should be concerned. The important takeaway is that their customer habits are changing and unless they adapt accordingly, they will continue to see a decline in subscribers. Personally when I do watch TV I tend to watch more Hulu and less cable due to the convenience and flexibility. Plus, who wants to deal with the poor service generally associated with cable service providers?

posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 9:20 AM by John R. Sedivy

It sure sounds like cable should be worried, but not consumers. This is just another reminder that consumers have the power, and eventually they will vote for changes with their pocketbooks.

posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 9:57 AM by Rebecca

Let's not go too crazy guys. We are in the middle of a recession and cable is a nice-to-have. Similar data can be seen for things like health insurance, life insurance, gym memberships and other discretionary things. While it certainly adds to the inbound hype, it is important for marketers to leverage all the channels that work for their business.  
 
Ryan Malone 
SmartBug Media 
An inbound marketing agency and Hubspot Partner 
@RyanMalone 
 
Free reports: 
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posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 10:04 AM by Ryan Malone

Even if cable subscriptions are down, the 2010 Nielsen 3 Screen report still showed that 90+ percent of all video media was consumed through a standard TV/HDTV stream.  
 
Social media has changed some of the rules, but it's never going to supplant TV entirely.

posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:14 AM by Steve Watts

I wrote about canceling Cable TV on my blog a couple months ago. 
 
I still don't miss it at all - I have netflix streaming and I'm considering hulu plus. Getting rid of cable cut my (already huge) Comcast bill in half and we didn't even have premium channels or HD service.

posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:33 AM by Sam Coren

Aaaargh. I love Hubspot( I wore your t-shirt in my Christmas pictures. 
 
This is true, but I do grow weary of so many bright minds insisting causation is the equivalent of correlation.  
 
In my own household, we cut back as a function of market slow down in order to be able to contribute more to savings.Clearly cable is a luxury and not a necessity.  
 
I'd be really interested to see Hubspot deep dive into some of these topics and deep dive into the real reasons behind some of these stats.  
 
Clearly the tides are shifting, but I'd like to have the headlines to be backed up with more empirical data.

posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 3:28 PM by Teicko Huber

It's funny how an internet connection is slowly becoming a nessesity.

posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 6:33 PM by Ralph

TV is a luxury item that easily be removed. I don't currently pay for service right now (directly) because it's packaged with my HOA fees but after I move I won't be ordering service. The basic package will cost around $60. I only watch a couple of shows and to me they're not worth $60.  
 
 
 
I'll probably get another Netflix membership for $10 and watch movies that way. Combined with Hulu and Youtube my entertainment is taken care of.

posted on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 10:00 AM by Joe

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