Time Warner Cable may have a plan to fight the cord cutting trend.
The Wall Street Journal reports the cable company is considering buying a 25 percent stake in Hulu, the streaming service best known for making new episodes of many TV shows available the day after they air. "People familiar with the discussions" say TWC wants episodes from current television seasons off the service to prevent more customers from leaving.
"Time Warner believes that the presence of full, current seasons on Hulu—or anywhere else outside the bounds of pay-TV—is harmful to its owners because it contributes to people dropping their pay-TV subscriptions, or 'cutting the cord,'" the publication writes.
As Perez Hilton explains, the proposed deal would mean seasons of shows currently on the air wouldn't be available until after the season finale airs.
"Most of [Hulu's] value lies in users who really want access to cable or broadcast programs but who don't want to pay the heavy fees," Cinema Blend writes. "For a small percentage of the money the average cable purchaser shells out, Hulu's audience can still catch shows... from the comfort of devices as varied as tablets, TVs and computers."
But would any changes at Hulu stop TWC customers from leaving in the long term? According to CNN, one in four adults currently don't pay for TV and by 2025, half of all adults under the age of 32 are expected to be cord cutters.
And more a la carte options are being offered than ever before, from big streaming services (like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu) to individual content providers (like CBS All Access, Nickelodeon Noggin and HBO Now) and offerings of both live and on demand video (Apple TV, Sling TV, PlayStation Vue). Of course, an Internet connection is still required -- and cable companies can still hang on to some customers that way.