Another 1.8 Million People Just Ditched Cable TV As Free WiFi Makes Cord-Cutter 'Myth' Turn Real

Helga Weber / Flickr, CCShe's not watching TV.Another quarter, another dismal set of numbers for the TV business. About 1.8 million people ended their cable TV subscriptions in Q2 2013, according to analysts at SNL Kagan.

Some of those people went to other TV-supplying services, such as telcos like Verizon or AT&T that offer TV along with broadband internet access.

But overall, the numbers of people who pay for any type of TV service are in decline, according to Multichannel news:

• There were 366,000 net subs lost in Q2, according to SNL Kagan.
• Cable TV suppliers lost 1.8 millions subs.
• But telco companies - internet providers who also supply cable TV, in other words - gained 400,000.
• 911,000 U.S. homes have cut the cord in the past year, according to MoffettNathanson.
• The rate of losses is increasing. In Q2 2012, only 325,000 subs were lost, according to Leichtman Research Group.

MoffetNathanson's Craig Moffet was the analyst who famously coined the phrase, "Cord cutting used to be an urban myth. It isn't anymore."

Where are all the cord-cutters going? Here's one theory: As the availability of free WiFi increases, folks whose primary access to video and the web is on mobile devices and tablets - the young and the poor, in other words - have a less urgent need for subscriber services.

The pay TV business is still huge, of course. But the losses in old-fashioned cable are not being gained by telco/internet suppliers who also supply TV. Here's the overall universe, per Multichannel News:

... top cable MSOs had 50.5 million video subs, ahead of satellite's 34 million, and the top telcos' 10.03 million.