2019 has been a coming year for cord cutting. Before this year the term “cord cutting” meant just having a pair of rabbit ears. Now it has a totally different meaning. This ‘new era’ of cord cutting is confusing a lot of people who are looking to just lower their monthly bill. And the biggest issue they are having is what service to choose. Many streaming services don’t offer enough content to replace your current cable provider. Example: Netflix has movies but they don’t have live TV or live sports. The new Disney + service is said to only have on-demand content, The upcoming NBCUniversal service is said to only host on-demand content as well. In most cases to fully replace what you have with your cable provider you’re gonna need at least 2 separate streaming services.
But, if you truly want to cut the cord do what most old timers do and get you an over-the-air antenna with a converter box for recording shows and call it a day.
Looking at the title you may be thinking “why would YouTube need a separate device when their app is available on every platform? Plus they wont have the extra overhead of having to deal with another physical device such as the Chromecast” Well to understand why, lets look at how cord cutting has affected YouTube this year. Then we’re gonna look at the other platforms that Google has.
Notice how many famous people have come to YouTube. December of 2017 the biggest one Will Smith joined the platform and took off right as cord cutting was in its infancy, and former Chicago Bears wide receiverEarl Bennett started a podcast along with many other athletes. Once cord cutting started gaining momentum toward the end of 2018, many already established celebs who were just posting videos periodically are now posting on a regular basis and creating podcasts. (Creating good ancillary income) YouTube gets over 30 million visitors per day. That’s more than Roku (27 milly) and close to Amazon Fire TV. (34 milly)
As of 2017 over 55 milion chromecast and chromecast devices have been sold.
Lets first start with the list of google branded apps and products that use googles operating system. We’re all familiar with Android TV boxes, but Google themselves don’t make one. In most cases it’s hard to find a good reliable Android TV box that’s neither glitchy or too expensive. The first one I bought (Zeki) didn’t work at all and had no online support. Basically a paper weight. Most cord cutters want to listen to music, watch content and maybe play a few games.
Google has a long list of apps, but i’m gonna point out the ones that would be relevant for a streaming device. Google Music, Movies & TV and Play Games.
Google music has over 175 million paid and free users (free Trial)
Iheart 120 million as of August 2018
Spotify 217 million as of May 2019
Google Movies & TV is similar toVudu in that there is no monthly subscription, you pay for what you want to watch. Now, recently Vudu started offering free ad-supported content which is a great service. I can see Google doing the same with a YouTube TV streaming device.
Games available in the Google play store are some of the best on the market outside of a gaming computer. The only other competitor I see in this field is Fire TV.
YouTube TV
Let’s take a look at paid services that YouTube offer.
YouTube premium ( $11.99/mo) as of 2016 reported 1.5 million users
Allows you to watch content ad-free, access to exclusive content (YouTube Red) and watch offline.
A music streaming service and mobile app that provides a tailored interface for music streaming,
.
The Chromecast is a great device, but I can see them replacing this with a Streaming Stick or dongle. Most people can’t get use to using a device that doesn’t have a remote control. One of the features I enjoy about the Fire Stick is the ability to cast or screen mirror without needing wifi or using your hotspot data.(portability) That’s not possible with the Chromecast , or you need to know some sort of trick to do so. If your phone or tablet isn’t on the same network as the Chromecast you can’t even set it up. No internal apps or storage either. This device is good for teenagers and college students but for the ones that are actually paying the bills it’s just too much to go through.
The point here is that YouTube has enough users and platforms to create their own device. I don’t know what it’ll take or if Google has obligations with other companies. I see a lot of potential both for us users and for Google as a company. To have a device that has it all in one place would be awesome. It’s very clear that in the months to come YouTube is only gonna get more popular as more and more people cut the cord on pay TV and having a device like this would be a HUGE deal for a ton of people.
Join me on YouTube for more cord cutter tech, news, theories and hypotheticals.
Good luck cord cutting!
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The point here is that YouTube has enough users and platforms to create their own device. I don’t know what it’ll take or if Google has obligations with other companies. I see a lot of potential both for us users and for Google as a company. To have a device that has it all in one place would be awesome. It’s very clear that in the months to come YouTube is only gonna get more popular as more and more people cut the cord on pay TV and having a device like this would be a HUGE deal for a ton of people.
Join me on YouTube for more cord cutter tech, news, theories and hypotheticals.
Good luck cord cutting! 
