Don't underestimate sports. I think live sports are what keeps the industry afloat.
Incidentally, it is WAY easier to cancel a Cox account in person at the local office than on the phone.
If you don't want to be on a contract, don't sign a contract.
Back in the early days, it'd almost always take at least one in-person visit to activate the cable card - Frequently two. Nowadays, I can get it done in 3 or less phone calls.
Did I mention I hate cable?
I too am without cable, but there's hardly a shortage of places that have the next game on a TV around me. Having a pint or two for the occasional game (or sitting at the squat rack or elliptical while watching TV) is a much better alternative than paying ludicrous amounts every month.
Seems to be in every industry. Enough people switch to rooftop solar, utilities can't survive. Enough people switch to electric cars, all of the infrastructure around gas vehicles starts to come undone. What's the tipping point for cable tv? At what point is it no longer sustainable for them to operate as they've traditionally done?
Interesting times.
Its probably not a big deal, in the end; if people cord cut and eschew TV-style content, it might hurt cable providers. But cord cutters that just increase consumption of higher-speed internet services are just transferring demand from "cable TV" to "high speed internet", and the providers of those services are largely the same anyway. So, demand shifts, and CATV fades away and ISP prices increase, and the same big companies make the same big money and have to maintain fewer distinct service offerings to do it.
cable on the other hand, doesn't seem like its that far away. besides infrastructure, one of the reasons why cable is expensive is they have to pay royalties to content providers. lets assume cable went away today, do you really think netflix / hulu would be able to charge the same rate?
they are trying to free themselves from the content providers by producing their own original content