Commentary
Average U.S. Viewer Now Uses Nearly 6 Different TV Sources
- by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, May 14, 2021
While some consumers are consolidating their streaming services, as of now, U.S. consumers are using more TV “sources” than ever, according to the latest annual Best Bundle study from Hub Entertainment Research.
The average U.S. TV viewer now uses 5.7 TV sources, defined as inclusive of traditional pay-TV services (cable, …
Karlene Lukovitz is editor of MediaPost's "Digital News Daily" and writes the weekly "Video Insider" and "Advanced TV Insider" columns. You can reach her at karlene@mediapost.com.
I find it hard to accept the definitions used in this report. We seem to be saying that the number of "sources" is up but this merely lumps all of the channels available via "pay TV" together as a single source while various types of streaming/OTT services are considered separate sources. In reality, the number of program channels we now get---as a national average---is considerably lower than before. The average TV home was credited with receiving over 200 channels containing program content just ten years ago, now, thanks to cord cutting, that figure is 30-40 channels lower and slowly declining.