Study: Cord Cutters Still Want to Watch Cable Networks; Discovery, Comedy Central Lead
Just because someone cut the cord, doesn’t mean that they aren’t still interested in watching cable networks.
According to a survey released this week by Beta Research, and cited by NextTV, cord-cutters are “most interested in” the Discovery and Comedy Central.
The survey indicated that a mix of lifestyle, educational, and general entertainment channels also remained popular amongst cord-cutters; Food Network, FX, ID, History, National Geographic, and the Disney Channel each scored highly.
Amongst the demographic described as “heavy streaming network viewers” by the study, FX was the most popular channel, followed by Discovery, Comedy Central, Syfy, Food Network, History, and National Geographic.
The majority of these popular networks are available across some of the most popular streaming services with the Discovery Channel, ID, and the Food Network being a part of discovery+, while FX shows stream exclusively on Hulu, and NatGeo programming included in Disney+.
The Beta Research Cable Network Interest Study was conducted in March and interviewed 1,390 multichannel subscribers and 610 non-cable subscribers. The survey also asked which streaming services cord-cutters use the most. A majority indicated that they watched content on Netflix, while approximately 40% viewed programming via Hulu.
Only 20% of respondents watched Paramount+ and even though many of the most popular cable networks are available on discovery+, less than 10% of survey participants reported watching the service.
The allegiance that viewers have to these networks is not only a potential boon for streamers as they invest more in educating the public about what content is available where, but it can also keep consumers attached to their pay-TV subscriptions.
“We feel that the networks with the highest interest scores still have potential to re-attract some cord-cutters or former cable subscribers in the marketing of the legacy basic cable packages,” president of Beta’s cable TV division Andrew Klein said according to NextTV.