Cord-cutters might still be the exception to the old school cable watchers out there, but with the growing popularity of streaming TV on devices from various platforms, it turns out that the people who have made the leap aren’t looking back. That’s because, in a new survey over over-the-top (OTT) video users by programmatic platform OpenX and analytics firm The Harris Poll, 52% of 528 cord-cutters said they don’t miss anything about cable or satellite TV.
While the study showed that the majority of cord-cutters don’t feel like they’re missing out on much by not having cable or satellite TV, some do feel as though they live events on TV (23%) local news (22%) and live sports (19%) are the things they do miss the most. But with a number of options out there across multiple platforms, cord-cutters are quickly becoming more of the norm.
“Cord-cutters are reacting to the fact that they do not like being forced to pay for channels they do not watch—and they do not like being restricted by device, time or place to access their programs,” said Dallas Lawrence, chief communications and brand officer at OpenX.
Although cable TV subscribers are still considerably higher than cord-cutters at the moment, households which pay for TV is expected to decrease by 3.0% in 2019 to 87.9 million users.
“Cord-cutters are part of a small group of early adopters, most of whom don’t watch a lot of TV, and for whom the ability to watch live sports is not an issue,” said Alan Wolk, co-founder of video consultancy TV[R]EV. “I would bet that many of them also had access to their parents’ cable TV passwords for those times they wanted to watch linear TV.”
With a number of streaming services already partnered up with mega communications and TV networks, or those brands creating their own streaming services — like ESPN+ and Disney+, among others — cord-cutters continue to have gain more options to watch their favorite TV shows, movies and live events.