There was a time cable TV seemed ubiquitous. It felt like every home had replaced the rabbit-ear antennas on top of their TV set with a cable box that brought the local channels along with popular networks like ESPN, MTV, CNN, the Discovery Channel and Nickelodeon.

In less than a decade, though, the cable TV audience in the Portland area has collapsed.

The number of cable subscribers in Portland and some of its Multnomah County suburbs has plunged by 60%, from 176,000 in 2016 to about 70,000 last year. That’s according to the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, which oversees cable TV service in nearly all of Multnomah County.

“As more streaming and digital media options become available, traditional cable subscriptions have steadily decreased across the nation, including within the M

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