These Are the Most Popular TV Channels in the US

March 14, 2017

This article is included in these additional categories:

Broadcast & Cable | Pay-TV & Cord-Cutting | Television | Video

The major broadcast networks ABC (71%), CBS (70%) and NBC (66%) are the most desired channels in an à la carte pay-TV package, with roughly two-thirds or more respondents from TiVo’s latest Video Trends Report [download page] saying they would choose these in their ideal package. These networks are also considered “must-haves” by viewers who don’t have Netflix, according to recent research.

Rounding out the top 5 most popular channels in the TiVo study are Discovery Channel (62%) and History Channel (60%).

Attitudes haven’t changed much toward pay-TV providers, per the study’s results. While the share of respondents who said they were satisfied with the level of value they were receiving from their service has steadily increased over the last two years, the gains are small and have, for the most part, remained stagnant. Some 21% of participants report being unsatisfied with the value of their provider. Of the unsatisfied group, the most common complaint was high prices or increasing fees (82%).

Considering that price was, by and far, the biggest complaint from unsatisfied customers, it’s easy to see why 78% of respondents said they wanted the ability to make their own package by choosing only the channels they want to watch (although the cost savings of these packages has come up for debate). In fact, respondents to a previous TiVo survey who were considering leaving their service provider said they might stay if they could choose and pay for only what they watched.

The question of cost also has an impact on OTT appeal: Netflix’s most appealing feature is price, according to 57% of respondents, followed closely by the ability for all the members of a household to create their own custom profiles (52%) and the ability to search for a piece of content to watch (51%). The low-cost on-demand option offered by Netflix and other subscription video-on-demand services has a big impact on Millennials’ decisions to forgo pay-TV.

Still, most respondents would take an ad-supported free version of these services over the paid model. In fact, 7 in 10 said that they would be willing to watch commercials for free service.

About the Data: The data is based on a Q3 2016 survey of 3,140 adults (18+ years of age) in the US and Canada.

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