In a new poll conducted by the Hollywood Reporter, the majority of Americans shared that they found cable unaffordable.
56% of Cable and 47% of Satellite subscribers deemed their content subscription as being too expensive. This is more than 3x higher than Streaming subscribers, where just 17% said it was unaffordable.
Not surprisingly, 90% of subscribers said that cost was important in picking a service. Customers also cared about picture quality and speed of the service. This was more important to them than number and quality of commercials.
For both traditional TV and streaming services, the ability to watch on demand was more important than the ability to watch live. This was a bit surprising as one of the pushes of vMVPDs is that they offer live content.
The importance of available content differed depending on the genre. The vast majority of customers found national and local news as crucial to picking a service. Surprisingly, only 54% of subscribers found that the ability to watch sporting events was important.
The study just reiterates the cord shaving trend that is already underway. Consumers are looking for cheaper options to get high-quality content and are willing to trade off fat bundles for skinnier ones.