• by Aaron Baar , September 11, 2015

Pay-TV providers concerned about cord-cutting consumers have no reason to be in panic mode right now, but it could become a real concern in the future. 

New research from Rovi Corp. (which creates entertainment search and navigation platforms for a variety of devices) reveals that only 3% of global pay TV viewers actually have cut their cords. More than half (57%) however, have given the idea either “a lot of” or “some” thought. 

“It’s a small percentage of [actual] cord-cutters,” Paul Stathacopoulos, vice president of strategy for Rovi, tells Marketing Daily. “[But] it’s definitely top of mind with folks.”

(The U.S. had the highest percentage of cord-cutters —7% — while Germany, France, China and India had only 2% of cord-cutting customers. The research was based on an online survey of 4,000 pay-TV and OTT subscribers across seven countries.) 

One of the factors that leads customers to consider cord-cutting, somewhat surprisingly, is ease of content discovery. Nearly 73% of global survey respondents said they were “extremely” or “somewhat” frustrated at not being able to find enjoyable content when they want it. On average, the respondents said they spent 19 minutes a day searching for something to watch, and a third of them said they frequently don’t find anything. 

The ability to find enjoyable content when they want it is something consumers would pay for. According to the survey, two-thirds (67%) of all respondents said they would extend their contract, upgrade their service or switch to a different provider if those options included better search recommendations. (Ninety percent of respondents in China and India said they would switch.) 

“If they can’t find something, they’re not happy because they wanted to be entertained at that point,” Stathacopoulos says. “I think there are changes and improvements that can be made in data and analytics underneath discovery [that can aid in discovery].”