Linear TV just can’t seem to catch a break these days. Cord cutting is not only reaching unprecedented rates and is still accelerating across the U.S. Research done by MoffettNathanson and HarrisX is shining some light on just why pay-TV users are defecting to streaming in such numbers.

Content is one of the most important reasons that customers are headed to streaming, according to the report. Viewers of the “Big 5” streaming services — Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max — all reported content as a reason for leaving linear TV for streaming at a rate of over 15%. All of those services also saw an uptick in the number of customers reporting content as their deciding factor in the third quarter of 2023.

Content was always an important factor for cutting the cord, but it has begun to become increasingly important. The bottom line is that there’s simply less and less to watch on linear TV, which is exactly what streamers intended to happen. The growth in the importance of content as a factor in deciding to leave cable in just the past two years is striking, and it seems that traditional broadcasters aren’t in any hurry to change that fact.

Recently, reports have indicated that NBC is contemplating abandoning the 10 p.m. ET hour on its weekday primetime schedule and ceding the timeslot back to local stations to program. The move would eliminate five hours of programming per week, cutting the channel’s primetime output by one-third.

The news doesn’t get any better from there for pay-TV providers in MoffettNathanson’s report. The second leading reason that respondents gave for leaving pay TV for streaming was their package’s price. The share of Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ subscribers who said they’d chosen that service over pay TV because their subscription to cable was simply too expensive increased in the third quarter of 2022.

However, cost is a less important reason than it was to customers when the streaming wars began in 2019. At that time, there were fewer services available, and a streaming subscription provided a much bigger value than a pay-TV plan. Now, as customers stack services and streaming budgets creep closer to the cost of some cable packages, cost has become less of a deciding factor. However, over one-third of customers still list it as a reason for cutting the cord.

The power of streaming companies with multi-billion dollar content budgets has simply overpowered cable providers. They cannot keep up with the volume of original shows coming from streaming platforms, and the content they have left isn’t worth the price they’re charging customers to watch it.