cord-cutting

noun

cord-cut·​ting ˈkȯrd-ˌkə-tiŋ 

variants or less commonly cord cutting

: the act or process of canceling a subscription to cable television or to a landline telephone service

As cable news begins to feel the squeeze from cord-cutting, arch-rivals Fox News and CNN are stepping up efforts to adapt to the trend that poses a long-term threat to their businesses.

—Stephen Battaglio

Although broadband rates don't appear to be rising substantially as a whole, there's a chance that cord cutting could someday lead providers to increase monthly Internet bills to mitigate the loss of cable customers, according to a MoffettNathanson report.

—Makeda Easter

The majority of Americans … now rely solely on wireless telephones. That watershed cord-cutting moment was reached in the last half of 2016, according to the federal government.

—Jan Cottingham

Examples of cord-cutting in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But its stock has been under pressure as of late amid industrywide challenges, including advertising softness and cord-cutting, as well as a lack of financial guidance during its fourth-quarter earnings conference call. —Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Apr. 2024

Beset by cord-cutting and the decline of movie theater attendance, Disney has grown the audience for its bundle of streaming services, which include Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. —Max Zahn, ABC News, 3 Apr. 2024

But with the popularization of streaming and subsequent cord-cutting, more customers are canceling their cable TV packages, which leads many media analysts to believe that the linear bundle business model is now in secular decline. —Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 2 Apr. 2024

Audiences’ shift to streaming and rampant cord-cutting have eroded Disney’s profitable linear TV business. —Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024

But for media companies, linear TV, while on the decline with shrinking ratings and cord-cutting, has turned into a marketing tool that expands public awareness of their streaming shows. —Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2024

Cable news channels in general are facing a moment of obsolescence amid cord-cutting, and everyone is trying to figure out a digital strategy that can become a sustainable business that is relevant to the younger consumer that isn’t watching TV news. —Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Mar. 2024

As cord-cutting continues, this year, Insider Intelligence forecasts U.S. ad dollars for connected TV to total $30.1 billion, an increase of 22.4% from the previous year. —Brad Adgate, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024

There is no shortage of RSNs having financial difficulty due to cord-cutting. —Mike Ozanian, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1999, in the meaning defined above