How much live TV do you watch, really?
About 25% are dropping Live TV according to the study below. It’s not just Cable and Satellite either, subscriptions to the streaming Live TV options are on the downward slide.
These numbers come from The Diffusion Group, a syndicated research company. TDG analysts had previously forecasted US households with pay-TV subscriptions to fall in the 83.5 million to 87 million range by 2020, but the actual numbers are lower than that with pay-TV households falling to 81 million at the end of 2019. And it’s not just cable subscriptions that are falling short of TDG’s projections. Live streaming options like Fubo, Sling, YouTube TV, Philo, and others are also unexpectedly dwindling. It seems like consumers are less concerned with watching TV live as it happens and leaning more toward video-on-demand options.
An Estimated 25% of Households will Drop Pay-TV This Year | Cord Cutters News
We watch very little live TV.
Why we don’t watch more is a more lengthy question and it probably boils down to the amount of commercial breaks. There’s no reason to watch something you can’t fast forward. Yes, you can DVR live TV and we were into that for awhile with TiVo (loved the Tivo many years ago), but if the point is to watch something live, well, fast forward isn’t an option.
Kara watches almost zero and I watch the Seahawks play football on Sunday sometimes, streaming through Locast.org and sometimes other Sunday NFL games. I haven’t watched a professional baseball or basketball game in quite some time. I’ll watch some boxing matches live. Last year, I paid for the boxing match between Conor Mcgregor and Floyd Mayweather. I’m also likely to pay for and watch Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. fight (see: Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition fight needs more time — delayed until November 28).
Beyond watching live sports, I’m also interested in some news programs and election coverage every four years. Since we’re in the election cycle, I’ll be tuning in to live TV a little more over the next 30 days or so. After that, live TV will be reserved for special events here and there.
Maybe the Oscars in 2021, particularly because it’s going to be more than interesting pondering what the Academy will vote for. Something tells me they will delay that until 2022 and incorporate 2020 and 2021 films. There just haven’t been enough award-winning type films released so far this year. Given we’ve just entered the main awards season, but the selection is thin right now and doesn’t appear to be improving much.
Have pretty much 0% interest in watching movies on Live TV. There are a few TV shows that come along that only air live. Recently, watched Drew Barrymore’s new talk show (see: The Drew Barrymore Show promises no “mundane questions” that launched 9/14 – Will it be on CBS All Access?), and while it was pleasant, it wasn’t really my thing.
Am curious what type of live TV you currently watch? How much of your overall entertainment is Live TV vs. streaming vs. movie theaters? Our viewing breakdown is something like this:
85% streaming, 10% movie theaters, 5% live TV. What does it look like for you?
Movies, Movies, Movies 
Delayed TV on a DVR is my dominant viewing, using DirecTV. Even Live Sports, the household’s favorite use of TV, often get the DVR treatment.
Streaming is still rare because the usability is awful: Last night I wanted to watch the movie Rebecca, by Alfred Hitchcock. Many searches on Fire TV using different search terms returned pages of search results, never finding the movie. The Amazon Prime Video app on my cellphone yielded similar results. Finally, I searched Google using “stream Rebecca Hitchcock” and found comments that this movie is not available for streaming on any service. I have no way to know if that information is current or outdated, but it was enough to make me quit searching.
That’s 20 to 30 minutes of wasted time. Why wouldn’t streaming services like Amazon simply return “not found?” Because they want me to click on SOMETHING when I search, i.e. they want to manipulate me. That’s what TV does with commercials, which I avoid. I’ll stick with the DVR and watch the channels that deliver content.
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I’d recommend instead of Amazon search when looking for where something is playing is JustWatch.com. If you search that for Rebecca (1940) like I just did you’ll find that it doesn’t return any results, which is exactly what you’re looking for. Amazon wants to sell us something and Google want us to click on ads or go somewhere, thus making their search engine more “useful” to users in their eyes. JustWatch is a smaller service, but I’ve found it to be quite useful as the go-to search to find where something is currently playing. I also will use ReelGood.com sometimes to find where something is playing. I prefer JustWatch though. Both services are free and relatively ad-free.
Peacock has the most Alfred Hitchcock content of any other streaming service out there. It doesn’t have Rebecca, however, strangely enough, but it has his TV show and a ton of his movies. If you like Hitchcock, Peacock is the streaming service to check out.
See: https://moviereviewsbyus.com/2019/10/14/why-some-movies-are-impossible-to-find-online/
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