THE ECHO

By Alaina Moon // Reporter

Despite the legacy cable continues to add to, streaming has asserted itself
as a legitimate entertainment form in an eternally growing industry. In a fast-
paced world such as this, it’s the best invention since wireless earbuds.

There are cons, however, like the growing costs, and cable could make a
comeback. But what do the numbers say?

Pew Research Center surveyed U.S. TV viewers and, in July of 2025, released
some thought-provoking numbers.

36

Compared to the 83 percent of Americans who use streaming, this is the
percentage who have kept cable (even if they have a streaming service or
two). Director of Orchestras Dean Westman said he is surprised that anyone
still uses cable to begin with.

“I grew up in a time before there even was cable,” Westman said. “When
cable first became a thing, it was pretty life-changing…. I’m actually
surprised anybody still uses cable a little bit, really…. I was under the
impression that everybody just kind of went over to streaming.”

31

This is the percentage of Americans who say streaming services are no
longer worth the cost because they are becoming too expensive.

English 9 and Etymology teacher Will Wortman said that it is getting a little
bit out of hand and hates the Netflix crackdown on password sharing.

“With how many services there are and how spread out the content is, it’s a
little bit frustrating sometimes,” Wortman said. “If your family is paying for
the subscription that they have, part of their subscription qualifications is
about [a] certain amount of screens that you can use. And I think as long as
you are not going over that amount of screens, you should be able to use
that account as much as you want to.”

64

Out of all the age groups in the U.S who watch cable, 65+ individuals take
the cake, with the percentage above being how likely they are to subscribe
to cable/satellite TV.

Broadcasting teacher Lauren Tauer said that it does not surprise her due to
how many streaming services there are these days.

“It was mostly just Netflix,” said Tauer. “And then slowly, another one
[streaming service] pops up, and you’re like ‘okay, I’ll do that.” And then
now, there’s so many different ones that if you’re just going from cable to
streaming, it’s a lot at once to navigate.”

16

This is the small percentage of 18–29-year-old Americans who subscribe to
cable or satellite TV. Senior Raine Shugars, president of the Student TV
Network (STN), has a message for those few: Is it really worth it?

“Cable keeps cutting down on what it provides for its base package, and at
the end of the day, what are you going to get?” said Shugars. “You will be
able to find a lot of stuff on YouTube that cable isn’t going to have
anymore…. Cable is, once more, extremely expensive for no good reason.”

Source: Pew Research Center: 83% of U.S. adults use streaming services,
far fewer subscribe to cable or satellite TV