Commentary
Cutting The Cord, Really
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 2, 2018
Americans really are cutting the cord. Unpublished results of the 2017 Consumer Expenditure Survey, analyzed by Demo Memo, show a substantial drop in spending on cable and satellite television service, writes Cheryl Russell in her Demo Memo blog at a sampling of posts published in the past few weeks at demographics@newstrategist.com. …
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
Jack, the ongoing BLS studies are not known for their accuracy when it comes to TV audience metrics. Typically, they understate the amount of time that an average personj devotes to TV by a considerable degree, perhaps because of the way "watching" is defined or, just as likely, pecause people can't provide these answers as well as program- and time-specific research by Nielsen, MRI, Simmons, etc. For example, this report states that only 58% of U.S. households subscribed to either a cable system or a satellite program distributor in 2017. That number seems rather low and I believe that the real percentage was closer to 70%.
thanks, ED... I'll keep it in mind, J