Number of Broadband Households Foregoing Legacy Pay-TV Continues to Rise

March 23, 2017

This article is included in these additional categories:

Pay-TV & Cord-Cutting | Television

The share of US broadband households that don’t subscribe to legacy pay-TV continues its steady climb, reports TDG Research in a new study. Some 22% of broadband households surveyed in 2016 could be classified as “Cord Nils” in that they don’t use any TV services from legacy providers. That’s double the figure from 2012 – a marked rise in a short time.

Interestingly, the proportion of broadband households without any pay-TV service has accelerated in recent years, jumping from 14% in 2014 to 22% last year. These households consist of “cord-nevers” (those who have never subscribed) and “cord-cutters” (those who stopped subscribing).

Recent research suggests that 82% of US households subscribe to a pay-TV service. While that figure is higher than TDG’s results (78%), the TDG research was limited to broadband households, which presumably are more likely to forego pay-TV and use streaming services instead.

Research released last year by GfK, meanwhile, indicates that 1 in 4 US households forego pay-TV. In examining differences between cord-nevers and cord-cutters, the report showed that cord-cutters over-index the total population in subscribership to subscription video-on-demand services, active viewership of OTT on a TV set, and having kids in the household. By contrast, cord-nevers under-indexed the general population in each of those cases.

The GfK study also found that cord-cutters and cord-nevers have lower incomes than the general population, an interesting point in light of recent research from TiVo indicating that price is the main complaint cited by dissatisfied pay-TV customers – and that low cost is one of subscription video-on-demand services’ primary benefits.

Chart-Library-Ad-1

Explore More Articles.

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

Marketing Charts Logo

Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

Sign up for our free newsletter.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This