By Janko Roettgers February 11, 2013: 10:16 PM ET<\/p>\n
Cord cutting is real, argued Charlie Ergen, Chairman and co-founder of Dish Network at All Things Digital\u2019s Dive into Media conference in Dana Point, California Monday. \u201cthink people are cutting the cord,\u201d Ergen said, arguing that kids in college never use cable, and that they won\u2019t suddenly start paying once they leave school. \u201cThere is a reason that tobacco companies give away free cigarettes at colleges,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
Ergen also reiterated his position that a la carte programming would be better for consumers, as well as the industry itself. \u201cWe are still for a la carte, because the Internet is a la carte today,\u201d he said. People could just watch Netflix, or even pirate content online, and service providers would have to compete with this new reality. \u201cA lot of customers can live with Netflix and an\u2026 antenna, and YouTube\u2026 and they\u2019d be pretty happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, Ergen cautioned the audience at Dive into Media that a la carte won\u2019t become a reality anytime soon. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna go there slowly,\u201d he said, arguing that the major broadcasters won\u2019t break the bundle willingly. It would be more likely that the bundle would be broken by outside forces like Amazon and Netflix.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Netflix: Ergen was quite bullish when asked about the future of the video service. \u201cI think they will be successful,\u201d he said, adding that the launch of Netflix\u2019s first original series House of Cards<\/em> was \u201cbrilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that it would be possible for both Amazon and Netflix to succeed with their respective services \u2013 but it was quite clear that Ergen is rooting for Netflix: \u201cI\u2019m a fan,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI feel stupid that we didn\u2019t think of it first, but I\u2019m a fan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Janko Roettgers February 11, 2013: 10:16 PM ET Cord cutting is real, argued Charlie Ergen, Chairman and co-founder of Dish Network at All Things Digital\u2019s Dive into Media conference in Dana Point, California Monday. \u201cthink people are cutting the cord,\u201d Ergen said, arguing that kids in college never use cable, and that they won\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-update"],"yoast_head":"\n