With the streaming industry flooded with viewing options, it’s hard for even the most loyal pay-TV customers to go without a streaming subscription, and according to TiVo’s Q1 2020 Video Trends Report, subscribership numbers keep going up. In their study, released today, TiVo found that 74.6 percent of people reported using at least one subscription streaming on-demand service, up from 69.5 percent in 2019.
On the other hand, live streaming services such as Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV aren’t making similar strides. According to the study, both are on the decline, dropping by 2.5 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively year-over-year.
“Other live streaming services are either static or seeing slight increases or decreases. All are having trouble gaining ground in the subscription market,” TiVo stated.
The study also found that pay-TV continues to lose customers. Though 81.7 percent of respondents admitted to using a cable/satellite service, 10.7 percent say they canceled their pay-TV/live TV provider in the last six months. The vast majority of those who canceled cited price as their reason for leaving.
In addition, 12.7 percent of respondents said they plan to cut pay TV/live TV in the next six months, while 87.3 percent plan to stay with their current pay-TV provider or are undecided about their plans in the next six months.
Those who have no plans of ever leaving their pay-TV service cited several reasons for their loyalty to cable companies. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they were happy with their service, 20.4 percent said it would be too much of a hassle to start over and 16.6 percent didn’t believe they would get all the content the want should they leave cable/satellite service.