TV options make it easy to cut the cord: #tellusatoday

About 100 million subscribers pay multichannel video providers such as cable operators for TV, but the total is falling. As customers opt for Netflix and Hulu, what should pay-TV industry do to survive? Comments from Twitter and Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

Simple: Provide great customer service, lower prices and weekends of free HBO/SHO more often (online, too!).

— @RevenueKerry

Allow for more customer control on which channels are in a package so you can pay only for the channels you want.

— @simonefaithful

I can't give up my sports and am not ready to watch them online with subscriptions for each league.

— @KateSutterLHS

Embrace customer service, create simultaneous online/cable broadcasting, ability to view on multiple platforms.

— @n3rdtastic1

Pay TV needs to see Netflix and Hulu as additional distribution models and offer its content there. Evolve or die.

— @sethlilly

Market pay-TV advantages over Netflix, such as local help/programs, offer better rates and a la carte options

— @LDStandard

Bottom line rules

I pay $40 a month for high-speed Internet plus $8 a month for Netflix and $8 for Hulu. When I had the "100 channels you don't want plus the 10 you do" plan from my cable provider, I paid $150 a month. Cut the cord. It's easier than you think.

— Czerny Ambrose

Companies are working to make sure the switch isn't easy. Internet service providers are putting caps on data usage. When you go over, you pay more. Soon you'll be paying as much to not have cable as you used to pay to have it.

— Ray Fleming

After paying $180 per month for Internet and cable, my wife and I (with a second child on the way) decided to pull the plug. We just bought the Chromecast add-on, an exterior-mounted HD antenna, Netflix and Hulu.

— Justin Garver

Content still matters

Another large factor is the type and quality of programming being offered on pay-per-view and premium channels, which can turn off subscribers.

A lot of it has to do with the movies and series being produced on these channels. They are filled with sex, violence, drug use, profanity and nasty characters with whom I find it difficult to like, let alone identify with. Give us quality entertainment, and we will hang around. Otherwise, lose more subscribers.

— Paul Hafner

HBO is going to offer its content to non-cable customers via monthly streaming subscription soon. I expect Showtime and the others to follow suit.

— William Travis

The pay-TV industry needs to act fast before it becomes the Blockbuster of TV providers. Streaming video is here to stay, so pay-TV operators just have to decide whether they want to be relevant or not.

— Josh Dorner

Comcast and other TV operators are businesses. They'll add features "for the customer" as long as those products bring in and maintain revenue. By and large, cable companies didn't start piling on features until they started losing business.

Why give customers more if they're going to come to you anyway?

— Anthony Munhollon

For more discussions, follow @USATOpinion or #tellusatoday on Twitter.