Recent times have seen a drastic increase in the number of viewers who opt out of cable and satellite TV for cableless media, i.e. the internet. This practice is what is termed ‘cutting the cord’ or ‘cord-cutting’. It can be understood as a practice in broadcasting where TV viewers stop viewing their contents on multichannel television platforms like cable television and satellites in favour of wireless media as found on the net. The phrase can be understood figuratively to mean the act of severing our connection to the wired forms of TV broadcasting, and those who practice this are designated as ‘cord-cutters.’
As more people migrate from traditional satellite to modern Internet-based streaming, it will be thoroughly useful to consider what benefits the new trend holds for the average TV viewer, pondering whether to cut the cord. The merits associated with the wireless mode of streaming are attended to below.
It saves you money
This is one of the most prominent perks enjoyed by the average cord cutter. A major reason for the drift from cable to wireless is the costliness of the former, where you pay a monthly subscription for channels, many of which you do not fancy. Here we are not considering the cost in isolation, but the user has over his viewing options concerning liberty. This simply means that, in a cable system, a viewer pays his money through subscription but is still bound to watch whatever he is shown.
Imagine the number of programs unwatched by a satellite user who has fulfilled the subscription payment? The typical viewer has a selective catalog of programs of interest but is constantly flooded with multitudes of other programs on his multichannel satellite. If you consider this and various cordcutting reviews more closely, you see that he’s actually paying a lot to view little. Like the Netflix subscriber, the Internet viewer subscribes with the absolute certainty of enjoying a stable inflow of one desired thing, movies. So he knows he’s getting a reasonable return for his money.
Portability
Net-based streaming is comparatively easy to use for its portability. This portability is a significant advantage of internet streaming. Whether your gadget is a minuscule phone or a laptop, it will always be more portable than a traditional TV. This proves to be greatly valuable to the viewer, who will surely relish the luxury of lying sprawled in bed or on the sofa, phone couched in his palm, or laptop placed on his lap.
Another delight of cutting the cord is that one is not too burdened by connection failures due to weather fluctuations, as we see in cable or satellite TVs. Satellite television is more prone to having signal failures during even a mild drizzle or snowfall, since the signals usually travel a vast distance to reach your television. Also, the fact that the satellite dish is hoisted outside the house exposes it directly to the impact of the elements, like wind and rain. On the other hand, the internet-based connection is less affected by weather changes, except these changes have become quite extreme.
Greater liberty to watch at one‘s pace
Yet another merit of cordless media is that you can view your content at your time and pace. As opposed to this, the traditional TV viewer has to be present when a particular episode of his favourite series is airing, or else he misses it for good. Even while present, he does not have the freedom to pause the program at will to go over a misheard word again. This is where the internet mode edges the traditional TV one more time, for a Netflix viewer can view the entirety of Game of Thrones at one sitting if he desires and can pause replay, and opt-out at will. And there is nothing the viewer prizes more than such liberties.
You’re gifted more viewing options suited to your taste
The use of cordless streaming avails you the opportunity of enjoying a vast range of programs and contents that are consistent with your needs and preferences. Under this system, you’re not bombarded with everything, but with much of that one thing you specify. So whether it’s documentary, podcasts, sports contents, and whatnots, you can search them out on the sites and stream them, instead of hoping, like the typical TV user, that you’ll just be lucky to see your preferred content when you desire.
Summarily, it’s becoming clearer by the day that cordless internet streaming is well on the way to becoming the dominant mode of viewing. The reason for this shift should by now be plain enough to you, having seen the many boons this system provides. This is one constancy about the computer industry—it is always experiencing enormous shifts and extensions of the bounds. Cutting the cord is among the great shifts of the computer age.
Featured image: Mollie Sivaram/Unsplash
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