Ten percent of U.S. households have ¨cut the cord¨ on their pay-TV services, according to new market research from Parks Associates. No less than 25 percent of those have canceled their pay-TV subscriptions and turned to over-the-top (OTT) services as a replacement in the last 12 months.
Furthermore, 7 percent of U.S. broadband households have recently become ¨cord shavers¨ by downgrading their pay-TV subscriptions and making use of OTT video services instead. In addition, Parks found that 3 percent are ¨cord nevers,¨ those households that have never signed up for a pay-TV service but watch films and TV programming by making use of online sources.
Video Cord Cutter Survey Commentary
Brett Sappington, Parks’ director of research, noted how highly sensitive pay-TV providers are to OTT providers’ incursions even though pay-TV adoption rates having held roughly steady over the past four years. “Cord cutters, shavers, and nevers represent both the risk and opportunity facing the industry today.
“As viewing evolves, companies want to be sure that they are in a position to react to trends and adequately capture revenues. The massive influx of new OTT video services in 2015 is one example of video market players making moves to prepare for the new future of video entertainment.”
