TV viewers’ core group of channels are shrinking.
In a second-quarter 2016 survey done by TiVo’s Digitalsmiths, the company says 83% of consumers watch 10 or
fewer channels, with 2% fewer respondents watching 11 to 20-plus channels -- down 1.5% versus a year ago; 2.0% from two years ago, and 4.1% from three years ago.
This was the result when
responding to the question: “How many channels do you typically watch, on average?”
The number of those who “feel overwhelmed” by the amount of channel options is
slightly growing -- now 32.3% from 28% three years ago.
At the time, the survey noted a slight decline in respondents who were interested in so-called “skinny bundles” -- down 3%
from a 76.8% interest level versus a year ago.
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Of those who are interested, the average price for what people would pay for a skinny bundled TV network is slightly up to $41.04 -- $3.60 per
channel -- $1.52 higher than in the first quarter 2016.
When it comes to cord-cutting, the survey says results have stabilized -- some: 7.2% of pay TV subscribers plan to cut services
altogether, up from the 7% in the first quarter and higher than the 4.5% in the second quarter 2015.
Over 50% plan to stay with their current pay TV provider -- slightly lower than the 53.4%
in the second quarter a year ago. Over 8% of pay TV subscribers switched providers in the last three months.
The survey was done in the second quarter, interviewing 3,114 viewers in the U.S.
and Canada. Digitalsmiths offers content discovery/search services for TV-video providers.