Massaging the cord-cutting numbers: Maybe it's just 'cord-switching'

People may not necessarily be cutting the cable cord, but they are moving elsewhere for their video entertainment, according to new data from Nielsen Media Research for the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB).

The Nielsen data shows that wired cable penetration is at a 21-year low and that the "cut-the-cord phenomenon is real," concluded Steve Lanzano, president of the TVB.

Not so fast, countered Bill Gorman, of Satellite TV Business, who said it's not cord cutting, it's "cord switching" because "total TV service subscribers grew by 475,000 in the first quarter of 2011. Gorman, like Nielsen, presented numbers to support his case.

For more:
- Television Broadcast has this story
- TV By The Numbers has this story

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