You clearly aren't informed. Because cable subscriptions are decreasing at a rapid rate and it went down 12% in January alone of this year and the decline has continued every month of this year and the downward trend is snowballing at a rapid rate. Why do you think all of these giant cable mergers are taking place, because the cable companies don't give a crap about the cable TV, they need the broadband lines to stay profitable and survive due to streaming. Most people just get the local channels (aka the networks) from their providers just to get local news and such for a few bucks a month then stream everything else. Cable TV is a dying industry. And if you don't know the difference between a cable rating and a network rating then you truly are clueless! Not to mention the advertising dollar difference advertisers pay for promoting their product on cable vs a network.
Mike you are greatly overstating things.
Last year the cable industry lost 0.12% in a year not 12% in one month.
The cable industry lost about half as many subscribers and Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse gained. So it isn't as much that people are giving up TV as much switching methods of receiving TV.
Also most cable cutters are replacing it with some sort of other service...netflix, hulu etc. Someone who is really into sports is cutting ESPN out of their lives.
On the other hand someone who only watches HBO and the local news might decided they can get HBONow for less. They didn't watch basketball before and they won't now.
Yes, cable is in decline, but anybody who wants to watch basketball does and people who don't want to watch it aren't going to start because it is on a major network.