Cost saving hits TV and landline ownership

Lower and middle-class Americans are giving up their televisions and unplugging their landline telephones as they pinch pennies amid persistent economic stagnation.

New estimates from Nielsen, the media measurement company, show the total number of US households with a TV will be down more than 2 percentage points next year, the first decline in 20 years. Both shifts are in large part a result of dwindling disposable incomes among US consumers, which are accelerating technological and demographic trends. “The evidence suggests that what we’re seeing is a function of poverty more than it is technology,” said Bernstein Research senior analyst Craig Moffett. “The pressure is only getting worse as gas prices climb to $4 a gallon.”