Internet penetration rates are WAY more important than video take rates - Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) continues to do well here.

"Cord-cutting" may be one of the most over-hyped phenomena on the planet. It invokes images of a hip millennial (is that redundant?) proudly sticking it to the callous cable behemoth and enjoying all of his video content over the Internet instead. Savvy young consumer 1, dinosaur corporation 0. But pick this apart a little bit and the outcome isn't so clear-cut. First, 55 cents of every video subscription dollar earned by CMCSA last year went to pay for the programming our hipster had available to him. Now that he's "cut the cord", CMCSA no longer has to pay its programming partners on his behalf. And CMCSA doesn't need to house an expensive DVR box in his house, or service it when something goes wrong. On top of that, the cord cutter forfeits discounts when he only takes Internet service and ditches video. In many markets, the service bill will be virtually identical if you take a typical Internet service on its own or bundle Internet service and a standard video package. If the same company that provided video is still providing your Internet service, it isn't clear that the dinosaur corporation has even been scratched, much less made extinct.

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