No version of TV — not cable, not streaming, no one — is able to meaningfully grow an audience right now. There simply aren't many new viewers to be found, on any platform or through any means.

• The chart above shows the stark decline in cable TV, which has been hemorrhaging viewers for years, with no end in sight.
• Viewers ditched their expensive cable bundles in droves and fled to streaming — so you might expect that streaming services would be growing where cable is shrinking.
• They're not. Take a look at the chart below. Subscriber churn, which includes cancellations and lapsed subscriptions, has nearly tripled in the U.S. in the past four years. Just about every major streaming service has plateaued and is now adding fewer net new subscribers each year.

💡 There are only two winners right now — Netflix and live sports, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.

• Netflix has the lowest rate of subscriber churn of any major streamer, and it's one of the few companies that isn't saddled with debt from big mergers or dead weight from linear TV.
• Sports, meanwhile, is the only thing that can draw a big crowd anymore, and paying for the rights to live sports may be cable companies' best/only hope to hang on to more of their customers.

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Housing in major U.S. cities is as expensive as it's ever been, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck writes from new data that tracks home prices in 20 metro areas.

• That index hit a new high in December when a modest and temporary drop in interest rates coaxed more buyers into the market. It was the seventh straight month of increases.

What's next: If rates do come down later this year, there's clearly a reservoir of pent-up demand that will keep prices high.

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1. 🛍️ Macy's plans to close about 30% of its stores and lean more heavily on high-end brands. Go deeper.
2. 📺 CNN will pay Don Lemon almost $25 million to leave the network, The Wrap reports.

• 🦾 Apple is canceling its highly ambitious, decade-long effort to develop an electric car and will focus on AI instead, Bloomberg reports.

Wendy's is planning to implement surge pricing — charging higher prices at times when demand is high, similar to ride-sharing services, Axios' Kelly Tyko reports.

• It's part of a larger effort to create a more "dynamic" ordering process, the company said.
• In addition to surge pricing, Wendy's is planning new menu displays that will suggest certain items based on factors like the weather. It's also been working on ways to automate its drive-thrus and use chatbots for ordering.

🍟 The changes will roll out next year, the company said.