By most conventional metrics, it appears the U.S. economy is improving: jobless claims are down, consumer confidence is up and the stock market appears stable. But if you find some of that economic data baffling or are just looking for reasons to feel good about the economy, maybe some different measurements are in order. Here are six unorthodox ways of judging how the economic recovery is doing.
If you stayed the course last year and never switched banks, wireless companies, pay TV services, or any other providers, then you’re in the minority. And if you actually feel “very loyal” to your providers, then you’re part of an even smaller minority.
A just-announced joint venture between Verizon and Redbox will soon offer a service combining video streaming and physical DVD rentals. Now wait just a sec. Isn’t there some company that already does both of those things?
A year ago, observers speculated that 2011 would become the “Year of the Cord Cutter,” during which a record number of consumers would drop their cable subscriptions. Needless to say, the vast majority of American households still have a pay TV plan. When, if ever, will a massive cutting of the cord take place?
As a rule, consumers don’t like paying for things they don’t enjoy. Even so, despite the widespread consumer desire for an a la carte model, in which pay TV customers could select (and be charged) only for the channels they want, the bundle remains standard. What this means is that pretty much all pay TV [...]
Month after month, hundreds of thousands of cable TV subscribers keep closing their accounts. Roughly a half-million subscriptions were canceled in the second quarter of 2011 alone. Even so, there’s an argument that 2011 isn’t shaping up as “the year of the cord cutter” as originally forecast. A “cord cutter” is generally thought of not [...]
Most consumers like the idea of pay per channel cable TV, in which the customer would select a la carte the channels he actually watches, rather than pay for a bundled service with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of channels that are quickly skipped past with the clicker. Cable providers obviously prefer selling channels in bundles, ensuring [...]
Here’s a compendium of interesting, sometimes weird, sometimes surprising factoids about consumer spending, housing, modern family life, and more.
Anchor, nibble, crunch. They sorta sound like they could be yoga positions. But they’re actually part of a strategy to talk your way to lower cable bills—or to getting your way in any other business arrangement involving back-and-forth negotiations.
Here’s a big roundup of statistics revealing just how much we love watching TV and movies at home, how much couch potatoes are willing to pay for such services, and also where it looks like things are heading from here.
Call it the early adopter penalty: New technology is introduced at high prices, which drop rapidly as the goods spread from an exclusive to mass audience, become cheaper to produce, and eventually go completely mainstream. This price drop has reliably occurred to everything from portable DVD players to hi-def TVs, from iPods to iPhones and [...]
