Report: 18 Million Americans Have Already Cut The Cord, Another 5 Million To Make The Move By 2024
Cord-cutting is growing in popularity as more consumers are choosing to ditch their cable boxes and watch live TV channels over the internet. Consumers may cut the cord to save money, bypass commercials, or quit committing to cable TV contracts.
According to research from Parks Associates, 18 million Americans cut the cord between 2014 and 2020. While the streaming industry is booming, the pay-TV industry is losing subscribers.
There are many live TV streaming services and video streaming services available.
By 2024, vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributors) services — or streaming TV services — are predicted to grow to over 23 million subscribers.
On the other hand, traditional pay-TV — cable and satellite — subscribers are expected to continue decreasing. The report estimates that pay-TV will only be in 53 million US households in 2024.
“Online pay-TV service from virtual MVPDs, players that target the general population instead of offering services to a specific geographic footprint, grew by an estimated three million. vMVPDs overall have grown to represent an increasingly large percentage of the pay-TV market – accounting for 16% of US pay-TV subscriptions in 2020,” said Kristen Hanich, senior analyst with Parks Associates.
“US ISPs collectively have over 110 million residential and small business internet subscriptions as of Q1 2021. The standalone broadband market will continue to grow, increasing pressure on these service providers to find the next combination of services that best leverages this massive subscriber base,” Hanich said.
According to the study, 4% of US broadband households currently also subscribe to Comcast Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, or Altice Mobile. Internet service providers, or ISPs, are looking for ways to set themselves apart from pay-TV providers and this is one of the ways they have attempted to do so. As more consumers switch to streaming services and additional services hit the market, companies may use bundling or other strategies to get more subscribers on board.