Happiness Is A Cut Cord

Thank you for sharing that. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that fact.

But but but...cutting the cord means they could NOT be watching the network premiere of "Forrest Gump" on USA tonight!!

If they are getting Internet there's still a cord. And from the same company; cord's not cut.

Presumably they are using the "cord" for streaming video - from Hulu, Netflix, Amazon or whoever. Doesn't sound like much has changed.

Cord cutting is another news media cliche and they just love to keep repeating their cliches until everyone believes them.

I have DSL "on a cord" from Earthlink as well as an antenna for OTA TV (ABC, CBS, FOX, ION, NBC, PBS, This TV, and GetTV). Earthlink does not offer "cable TV" so it's not from the same company. I've only subscribed to "cable" for one month in my life back in the mid 80s. True. I watch Netflix and Hulu - on MY schedule, not the cable company's. And, as it is, I don't have enough time to watch everything I want to.

Earthlink is a reseller. They don't own the cord. They use either the phone company or cable company cord. Besides, how do you watch anything with only a DSL connection?

landtuna said:

For the dismally deaf and hard of learning - "cutting the cord" means unsubscribing from cable and/or sat TV/Radio. It does not mean unsubscribing from your ISP.

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Although that's the definition some people may use, the only true total cord cutting would be to go with OTA TV and radio and nothing else. If you watch your TV programming through the internet from DSL or cable you've only partially cut the cord. You may not have cable TV programming anymore, but you still have a cord.

That isn't to say that I might not do the same thing some time in the future, but my wife and daughter still watch cable enough that I couldn't do it just yet.

anotherguy said:

Although that's the definition some people may use, the only true total cord cutting would be to go with OTA TV and radio and nothing else. If you watch your TV programming through the internet from DSL or cable you've only partially cut the cord. You may not have cable TV programming anymore, but you still have a cord.

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Yes. I can see the line between cable TV channels and streamed channels getting very blurred in the years ahead, along with the exact definition of 'cutting the cord'

"Cord cutters" with high-speed Internet over the same "cord" that would/could carry cable TV are like "vegetarians" who eat dairy and eggs.

landtuna said:

I have never heard anyone use "cutting the cord" to mean anything but unsubscribing from cable or sat TV. Virtually everyone has an Internet connection so it would be meaningless to use the term in that context.

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Perhaps that simply proves you don't get around enough, or talk to enough people. Originally, "cutting the cord" meant CUTTING THE CORD. The "cord" being a tangible, physical device, also known as a "wire" or a "cable". The phrase meant to end any and all reliance on any sort of wire, cord, cable or other form of long, skinny conductor of electronic signals, and to instead rely only on antennas capturing signals from the air, without any sort of (are you ready?) CORD.

It is true that grammatically lazy people misuse the term to only refer to unsubscribing to conventional cable service and using a different mode of getting signals over the exact same cord. That only proves that many people are grammatically lazy.

In my world, cutting the cord mean living without a wired phone. You'd be surprised how many people still pay to have POTS service in their house. It's not a growing business, and the major players want out, but millions of people still operate that way. I've been wireless only for over ten years. Just as Marconi once intended.

My cable bill is still quite manageable, so I don't care.

PirateJohnny said:

I watch Netflix and Hulu - on MY schedule, not the cable company's. And, as it is, I don't have enough time to watch everything I want to.

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I have cable and I watch everything on MY schedule too. It's called a DVR and On Demand. In about 15 minutes I'll be sitting down to watch tonight's season finale of Homeland. If I only had Netflix I would be waiting until sometime next year to watch tonight's episode.

TheBigA said:

In my world, cutting the cord mean living without a wired phone. You'd be surprised how many people still pay to have POTS service in their house.

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And you'd be surprised how many places still have unreliable cell phone service, thus making POTS service a necessity. And I'm not even talking just about rural areas in the middle of nowhere. Even in urban areas cell phone reception inside apartment buildings can be very spotty.

ansky212 said:

And you'd be surprised how many places still have unreliable cell phone service, thus making POTS service a necessity. And I'm not even talking just about rural areas in the middle of nowhere. Even in urban areas cell phone reception inside apartment buildings can be very spotty.

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I've never had a problem, and I travel a lot. Even in weather emergencies. If a call drops, it's not a major inconvenience to redial.

Radio Discussions dot com is the only forum I'm aware of where "cutting the cord" is not widely understood to mean: someone who no longer gets cable TV, or satellite for that matter. If you're a literalist, I guess it's impossible to cut the cord because that's how the electricity is delivered to the TV. I am a cord cutter (in the generally accepted way the term is understood in most of the U.S.) and cost is one of the reasons, but aggravation with the providers and the clutter of set top boxes is another. Just as with audio entertainment, there is more video entertainment content available than any one person can consume anyway.

SaltyDog said:

Just as with audio entertainment, there is more video entertainment content available than any one person can consume anyway.

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If one only considers quantity and ignore quality, then that statement is both correct and meaningful. But, if one includes quality as a consideration, then that statement is both true and utterly meaningless.