<span style="font-size:120%;">Pay TV industry folks have heatedly debated this fall whether consumers are dropping their cable or other TV subscriptions to watch more TV content online. A new study by Nielsen, commissioned by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, argues that most people who watch at least some content from the Web on their TV sets are "cord keepers" rather than "cord cutters." The study, called "Life is a Stream," surveyed 769 people 18-49, with its qualitative part using eight focus groups, to explore the viewing habits of consumers who watch at least some TV shows and movies from the Internet on their TV sets. That group makes up about 11% of the U.S. population, according to the study's authors.

One key finding of the survey, which will be unveiled this week: 84% of such viewers reported that they are watching the same amount, or more, regularly scheduled TV since they started streaming or downloading content to watch on their TV set. Importantly for TV distributors, 92% of these entertainment enthusiasts subscribe to a pay TV service, with only 3% reporting plans to give up their subscription.

Check The Hollywood Reporter for the rest.</span>

People want options a la carte. It's ridiculous to think in this day and age that we have to sign up for a financially raping cable/satellite package that we, as consumers, either barely use or use way too much.

I'd be glad to pay $25-50 a month to choose and pick ten channels(plus local stuff), plus a FREE DVR service(charge for the purchase of the box only). But I think some people(especially the younger generation that they claim has all the buying power) are getting hip to finding their shows via legal and not-so-legal means(YouTube, Torrents, Blogs, Etc.) using an affordable, high speed internet client.

But there will always be more people who are using cable than those that aren't. Most people in this country, despite the recession, are still too lazy to get entertained by cheaper means. These people want to be able to plop down in front of a TV and flip through channels and be trained and told to watch (insert program name here) instead of using TV as a template to build their own renegade TV network in their own home. I think we'll see tiered internet and higher prices for high speed internet in the future(at least five-ten years), but right now I think the consumer is just either too busy, too passive, too lazy, or too stupid to cut the cord.

The number of people subscribing to US cable television services has suffered its biggest decline in 30 years as younger, tech-savvy viewers lead an exodus to web-based operations, such as Hulu and Netflix

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