Commentary
Number Of Cord-Cutters Steady Year Over Year, Study Says
- by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, October 10, 2013
Evidence continues to pile up on the not side of the equation.
New research from Leichtman Research Group underscores that cord-cutting is not happening en masse, and it’s not driving the growth in over-the-top services, either.
About 9% of homes that receive high-speed broadband do not subscribe to a multichannel video service, according to LRG’s 11th annual study on this topic, fielded from a telephone survey of about 1300 U.S. homes. That percentage is up slightly from 8% in both 2012 and 2011. The conclusion? Consumers are not rushing to pull the plug on pay TV video in favor of digital video.
Also, among the consumers who don’t subscribe to pay TV services, their choice is usually driven by price rather than by a preference to watch alternative video sources.
Similarly, Altman Vilandrie & Co found that less than 5% of consumers watch online video regularly instead of subscribing to TV.
Even so, over-the-top services continue to grow, according to nearly all studies on the topic. Parks Associates recently reported that 44% of U.S. broadband homes have a subscription to an online video service such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, or Amazon. Added together, these various findings seem to indicate that the availability of OTT services is not causing cord-cutting, but rather is expanding the pie for video viewing.
LRG’s research also revealed that consumers are increasingly accessing the Internet through more devices. For instance, 64% of broadband subscribers also access the Internet on a smartphone, up from 52% last year, LRG said.
In related news, digital video generated $1.3 billion in ad revenue in the first half of 2013, up 24% over the same period in 2012, the Interactive Advertising Bureau said in its just-released report.
Perhaps the conclusion for now is this: Video consumption continues to be spread across devices, but multiple devices aren’t drawing consumers away from traditional TV.
Interesting. Supports my sense that the devices are primarily taking the role of the video store - not TV. But too many people like to muddy that picture by talking about anything connected to a TV as if it were TV...
Multiple devices aren't drawing the growing number of TOTAL consumers away from traditional TV, but what about younger viewers? Or should advertisers care?
Tough to know on younger viewers. The ones (males) in my household spend a bunch of time on Youtube...when they can't get to traditional TV. But they clearly prefer watching on the TV and love both programming and movies there rather than on their mobile.