Happy Nice Mall

This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection past columns.

People have long predicted that cable TV will die, but it really could happen.

As recently as a decade ago, nearly all Americans—more than 85 percent of U.S. households—paid for packages of TV channels from cable or satellite companies. It started to decrease hesitating at first and then much faster over the last few years.

Now, the share of American homes paying for traditional TV service is approaching 50 percent, according to the investment analyst’s latest assessments. Craig Moffett and S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan research group.

For comparison, cell phones were decades before the percentage of Americans without a landline phone at home reached 50 percent around 2017. (According to the latest government figures, approx. One-third of American adults have a landline.)

Perhaps it seems inevitable and predictable that cable TV will go the landline route. I promise you it wasn’t Even once Netflix starts to rise, it’s always on. Old habits are hard to leave. The old industries that made so many people rich die harder.

And remember that some new technology habits are quickly gained but not permanent. Do not forget My space? or predictions electric scooter or Segways Will it be the most popular mode of transport for city dwellers?

What might be the ultimate downfall of America’s cable TV industrial complex is a big deal. It shows that technology can change established ways of doing things slowly and then suddenly, with profound ripple effects.

Ian OlgeirsonKagan, director of research at Kagan, who has followed America’s TV market for nearly 20 years, said he was caught off-guard as the monthly cable bill became obsolete for many Americans. (More on the protocol latest newsletter.)

Olgeirson and other TV experts I spoke to did not identify a single tipping point in cable TV’s massive shrinkage. They said the bearish trend is more like a stacked series of creeping changes.

Netflix offered sofa sitters a happy alternative to paying for 500 TV channels that we mostly didn’t watch. There was a slow understanding in the television industry that sticking to the old ways could be deadly. Cable TV companies stopped fighting so hard to keep people from escaping and were instead happy to sell you chirpy internet service for streaming streams.

When the cable TV structure began to collapse, entertainment companies like Disney decided they couldn’t sustain the system that had sustained them for decades. they prefer be your own Netflix.

Old TV still has some life. Americans for now spend most of their TV time watching traditional television instead of streaming video. The flow is also a difficult job. About two-thirds of U.S. households pay for some old-fashioned TV channel, including semi-cable TV services from online companies like YouTube and Hulu. An optimist might say it’s surprising that cable TV has remained so durable.

But it’s clear that the cable TV system that has brought joy and headaches to tens of millions of Americans for decades is dying out. As investment analyst Moffett wrote in a special report to clients this week, the joker is whether Americans are relatively slow or “suddenly crashing like a Jenga tower” from cable and satellite TV.

And the ripple effects may have only just begun. For example, major sports leagues such as the National Football League grown on money in cable television system. If the cable model is knocked over, torpedo sport as we know it.

I always popular TV. I felt like a real adult when I started paying a huge TV bill, partly to watch my favorite football team. I downsized my cable TV package, but a few months ago I was informed that my bill would increase by about $10 per month. That was it. I’m in a wireless home now too.

Tip of the Week

Finding a difficult home Covid test online

Brian X ChenThe New York Times’ consumer technology columnist brings his own know-how for an at-home Covid test.

I’m sure some of you were in my situation over the holidays: I wanted to get tested for Covid-19 before visiting a family member. For me it was my 1 year old niece. Local stores deleted home testsand I’ve had no luck with the CVS and Walgreens websites.

so i used same approach That I bought the PlayStation 5 video game console to buy and turned the hunt over to the computers.

After a quick web search, the product tracking site NowInStock There was an entire section devoted to Covid test kits. My colleagues and I have previously recommended this website for tracking popular electronics, including video game equipment and laptops.

NowInStock automatically scans retailers’ websites for various brands of home testing and shows a comprehensive table of where kits are available. I was browsing the site late at night when Walgreens lit up with some test kits. I quickly ordered a few for myself and my brother-in-law and the shipment arrived in about two days.

NowInStock used to let people set up email alerts when new stock came out, but the site was overwhelmed. It now only offers alerts via the Telegram app. But I found manually checking the website for Covid tests was fine for my needs.

this is not a suggestion grabbing an unnecessary number of Covid tests. But there are times when we will need rapid testing. Unfortunately in this age of scarcity, how can we buy what we need efficiently such methods. Good luck and greetings!

Before you go …

• A year after the Capitol rebellion: Online chat about celebrations and rallies for the first anniversary of the January 6 riot in the US Capitol relatively quiet and my colleagues Sheera Frenkel and Ryan Mac say it “doesn’t seem very likely to translate into major real-world efforts.” They write that this shows that far-right groups have dispersed online in the past year, with a focus on local rather than national political participation.

• How crypto fever sparked a political fight: People who “mined” virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, were drawn to a city in Paraguay where electricity was cheap. Laurence Blair, contributor to Rest of World, Writer He said the crypto boom is now part of the battle between Brazil and Paraguay for one of the world’s most powerful hydroelectric dams.

• Valuable distractions: my colleagues recommend their favorite video games, one that takes players through the little details of high school life, including the latest version of Halo.

hug this

Enjoy it giraffe bending over to get a drink. (My colleague Melissa Kirsch shared this In the Home and Away newsletter.)

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