Here’s my report: I am watching more video now that I don’t have a television. (The Lloyd has gone out of my life.) It’s the movies – when I find one I want to see, and idly start it, it’s extremely difficult to stop watching. Discipline will come in time, I’m sure.
I was never much of a news watcher, except in hotel rooms on the other side of the world when I want to hear something that isn’t my own voice, so I don’t miss that – I am so dependent on news text sites already that missing the evening news doesn’t make much of a difference. And I wasn’t a sports watcher either, so nothing missed there.
The people who will have trouble cutting the cord will be looking for live events – live video-news-analysis hounds, live sports fans, and live entertainment fans. That’s a substantial segment of the population, and many households will have at least one person who doesn’t want to leave their cable subscription behind for one of these three reasons.
This is an experiment for me, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to pay TV. My ancient Italian doorman was confused. “Something wrong with the cable?” he asked. “No,” I said, “I’m going to try not subscribing, and just have Internet instead.” He made a big hand gesture, putting his right hand flat way above his head. “It’s expensive?” he asked. “Yes,” I answered. He moved his right hand down around his face. “It’s better?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I said.