FORGET CORD CUTTING — CORD SHAVING IS THE NEW THREAT TO CABLE

A Wall Street Journal analysis of Nielsen data over the past four years has revealed that the 40 most widely distributed cable channels, which include ESPN, CNN, and USA, have lost an average of 3.2 million subscribers over that period. The losses, it notes, have not come primarily from cable subscribers who have "cut the cord" and switched to Internet streaming services, but from people who have engaged in what the Journal calls "cord shaving" — dropping to the most basic packages cable companies provide, which in some cases amount only to broadcast network stations and family-oriented channels, that can cost anywhere from $10-50 a month. Such cord-shaving strikes at the industry in two ways, the Journal noted. It hits cable operators by reducing the amount of monthly revenue they receive, and it hits the cable networks who are paid on a per-subscriber basis — as much as $6.04 in the case of ESPN.