More and more people are turning to streaming media, why is cable TV losing ground in the United States

In the Shawshank Redemption movie, which has been repeated on cable TV for years, Reid tells Andy,"Everyone has a limit." The next time I see my cable bill, it could be the end of my patience.

Time published an article by technology columnist John Patrick Pullen saying that smart TVs and streaming video boxes are killing cable TV service, and cable operators need you more than you need it.

For

decades, cable companies have cornered millions of subscribers like me with hundreds of channels and thousands of shows. But in the 15 years I have been a subscriber, what I have paid most attention to is not the TV series, but the cost of my subscription.

Every month when I pay this fee, I want to "cut the cable"(stop using cable TV service). The reason is that there's nothing to watch on cable TV-unless you like "Shawshank Redemption"(which may appear on two channels at the same time), or one of the other 19 uninteresting items.

This feeling lasted for years, turning people like me into frogs boiled in warm water, and eventually causing them to stop using cable TV service. Last quarter, as many as 527,000 subscribers were cut. In the previous quarter, more than 750,000 people canceled their accounts-the worst record in the industry's history. The only reasons to prevent the rest of us from fleeing cable TV seem to be trouble and uncertainty.

Technology companies are on the verge of changing all this.

In the past year, streaming video services have become popular-and you're likely to subscribe to several services. In fact, in the past 12 months, Amazon Prime subscribers have doubled to more than 80 million, although many of them are simply seeking free online delivery services. At the same time, Netflix also has more than 50 million users, and it does not provide websites that sell dog food, batteries, shampoo and other goods like Amazon does. Those numbers are impressive, especially considering that there are currently 48 million pay-TV subscribers in the United States.

However, while Netflix and Amazon Prime are excellent services, they are not really TV services yet. They are all working hard to catch up with or even surpass traditional TV service providers in original content. But neither yet offers live programming (although Amazon recently finalized a content partnership with the NFL and a live broadcast partnership with the ATP World Tour in the UK). You know, real-time live broadcasting is the key to live broadcasting of news and sports events. These two types of content are currently the biggest selling points of cable TV.

Streaming video deserves attention

. To surpass pay-TV services, streaming video services need to provide real-time live broadcasts. Several new online services have recently achieved this. They also offer real-time channels with on-demand content and special features like cloud-based DVR. So far, reviews of these services have been mixed. However, they are still in their early stages of development and deserve attention.

For example, YouTube TV currently only covers 15 cities in the United States. At the same time, services like Sling TV offer advanced DVR services, but with obscure rules limit what you can record over the Internet. DirecTV Now may have 120 channels when it was first launched, but curiously, CBS was not among them. So far: Stephen Colbert fans are happy because DirecTV announced earlier this month that it had added his Late Show talk show to its product portfolio. See? Things are already moving in a better direction.

These services vary in price. Their monthly fees range from $20 to $70, depending on how many channels you want to watch.

However, streaming video services alone are not enough to get people to change the way they watch TV. All kinds of beautiful new hardware still need to play a role. Devices like Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Google Chromecast TV stick are constantly improving and are making viewing a variety of content easier. Currently, the number of streaming video boxes in use in the United States exceeds 130 million, and they typically sell for between $35 and $199. This number is almost three times the number of cable TV subscribers in the United States.

Smart TVs and streaming video boxes

While streaming video boxes have become increasingly popular with consumers, perhaps trendy TV products like Element's Amazon Fire TV version of Smart TVs have the best chance of prompting us to say goodbye to cable TV services. The 4K TV, which starts at $450, is equipped with Amazon's popular Alexa voice assistant technology. The Amazon Echo smart slightly has all the functions and even more-such as changing channels or playing your favorite movie only when you hear your voice commands.

Of course, streaming video boxes like Amazon Fire TV and Roku Ultra also support voice control, but Element Smart TVs allow you to switch to program content received by your digital antenna with just a voice command. This low-cost hardware component allows TV fans to watch local TV stations for free. It is also worth noting that cable TV services charge users to access these major TV networks, even though they are broadcast live for free via wireless transmission.

People upgrading to TVs like Element Smart TVs may scare cable companies into cold sweats because they solve all the problems that keep consumers using cable TV. On the Element smart TV, with Alexa voice control technology, changing input signals becomes easy-just say "Switch to HDMI 2" to the remote control, and you can complete the switch. Its interface integrates wireless antennas, allowing you to eliminate the uncertainty that you could lose important local TV shows if you cut the line. Alexa's skills are cool, providing the ability to turn on smart lights or read news reports-a benefit that will surely impress many long-term cable subscribers.

Cable TV is losing

ground Don't feel sad for cable companies, they are just getting what they deserve. As more people cut wires, the companies 'profits (and the remuneration they pay to show producers) continue to shrink. To make up for the loss of revenue, they chose to raise prices for people like me who had not yet cut the line.

ESPN is the best example of this vicious cycle. The Disney-owned network has lost approximately 12 million subscribers since 2011. At the same time, its sports event copyright fees are rising. To break even, the company implemented layoffs to reduce operating costs and raised its programming fees to cable operators. Cable companies pass on those costs to subscribers like us, prompting us to think about whether it's really worth paying more to watch. That's the case for ESPN, a prominent brand in the television industry; smaller channels may have closed down. (It's worth mentioning that Disney will not give up resistance. Last week, the company announced that it would take a bit of cord-cutting action on its own, offering its own branded ESPN and Disney streaming services starting in 2018.)

For everyone, this is a numbers game. Should I cut the cord, buy a new TV or streaming video box instead, and subscribe to a bunch of streaming services? For me, this decision can be interpreted as follows. Comcast claims the plan I subscribe to has more than 220 channels. At least 115 of those channels are live in standard definition-which means they will look terrible on my HD TV, so I don't watch them. Of the remaining channels, only 18 could interest me. After deducting the 4 wireless channels I could watch for free, the number narrowed down to just 14. In other words, I paid $95 just to get these 10 or so channels. This is obviously not worth it.

In the Shawshank Redemption movie, which has been repeated on cable TV for years, Reid tells Andy,"Everyone has a limit." The next time I see my cable bill, it could be the end of my patience.

Editor: Mary