As the biggest recession known to most of us gets into full swing, the cable TV companies are facing big problems. Subscribers to these ‘luxury’ services are looking to cut their monthly outgoings. And even worse, the advertisers are cutting costs too. So the cable companies are facing a double whammy.

When times get hard, viewers reduce any expenses that are not considered absolutely essential. With other ways of watching TV available for free, such as catch up tv and internet tv. The cable services are right at the front line of luxyury expenditures.

If not outright cancelling cable, then subscribers may just reduce their video on demand (VOD) services or the pay per view (PPV) purchasing. They could consider cancelling premium channels or reduce the monthly subscription to a basic package.

As for advertisers, these companies are all cutting down on their advertising budgets as a first line of defense in this recession and the cable operators are seeing a lot of advertising contracts either cancelled or scaled down.

Cable at least in the US still has the competitive advantage of serving more consumers than other pay TV services but even this is being eroded. The Television Bureau of Advertising has reported that the market for cable TV has been eroded to its lowest point for 18years at 60.9 percent of US homes. As this was reported in August it has probably fallen even lower.

Satellite TV has around 28 percent of the pay TV market, and the remainder going to other forms of TV delivery such as IPTV and catch up tv.

Also a growing of TV watching homes are opting completely out of pay TV and buying freeview set top boxes in readiness for the digital TV standard in early 2009.

So, although the cable companies still have the lions share of the market, times are changing and they need to adapt and rethink its strategies for subscribers and advertisers or the real tough times may be during 2009.

Of course watching Free Internet TV and catch up TV can save you that costly monthly subscription without losing out on the entertainment value

Related posts:

1. TV on Demand popularity surge during recession
2. Free content being devoured by recession hit public
3. Internet TV killing Cable
4. Internet TV the future for satellite and cable tv on your pc
5. Cable TV online