Survey: Pay-TV Subscriptions Fall by 13%; ‘Cord Never’ Movement Stronger than Ever
Survey: Pay-TV Subscriptions Fall by 13%; ‘Cord Never’ Movement Stronger than Ever
Much has been made of the cord-cutting revolution, and yet, all the while, pay TV services continue to limp along. Streaming customers in the U.S. without a pay-TV subscription now outnumber those with one for the first time, which means that more and more people are comfortable with the amount of content they get from their streaming services and don’t need pay-TV to fall back on.
A new survey from the Leichtman Research Group offers even more context into who is cutting the cord and why. The survey found that 66% of American households have a pay-TV service (via cable, satellite, live TV streaming service, etc.). While that number is still a substantial number of households, it is down 13% over 2017’s numbers.
| Year | % of Pay-TV Subscribers |
|---|---|
| 2007 | 85% |
| 2012 | 88% |
| 2017 | 79% |
| 2022 | 66% |
Among the people who say they were no longer subscribed to a pay-TV service, over one-third said that they had never been signed up for one and 52% percent of those respondents were between ages 18-34, while in comparison, 75% of respondents who were at least 45 years old still had a pay-TV service. That suggests that not only are more people leaving pay TV, there is now a growing generation that has never felt the need to have it and is unlikely to become customers in the future.
The news gets worse for pay-TV providers, as 13% of respondents said that they planned to drop their subscriptions over the next six months. Price is a big factor for those choosing to cut the cord, and the survey from Leichtman reflects that.
The mean annual income of people who own a cable package or satellite dish is 11% higher than that of non-subscribers to pay TV. Additionally, people with pay-TV packages tend to have more TVs in their homes maximizing their subscriptions.
| Number of TVs | % of Pay-TV Subscribers |
|---|---|
| 3 | 73% |
| 2 | 65% |
| 1 | 52% |
That suggests that not only are pay-TV customers slightly wealthier on average but they also prefer to have multiple places to watch their subscription plan in order to justify the expense. Pay-TV packages are notoriously expensive, often running as much as ten times the cost of a single streaming service, so it’s not surprising that their customers want to maximize their value.
Another vital piece of information from Leichtman’s survey is that nearly half (46%) of those that moved in the last year do not currently have pay-TV service. This means that not only are people forgoing such packages when they get to a new home, they are not bringing their old pay-TV service with them; saving themselves the hassle of moving their service is more valuable to those customers than the service itself.
The “cord never” movement is as strong as it’s ever been in the U.S., and it will likely continue to grow. With more and more young people choosing not to become pay-TV customers, it’s only a matter of time before the long, drawn-out suffering of pay-TV is finally ended.
