To find the exact number of US cord cutters has always been challenging. Many pay-TV providers don’t provide numbers of subscriber losses and the lack of subscriber data makes it difficult.
We now have a report from The Convergence Research Group that was published this month, giving us a new look at how many Americans are becoming cord cutters.
“We estimate 2016 saw a decline of 2.05 million US TV subscribers, 2015 saw a decline of 1.16 million, and forecast a decline of 2.11 million TV subscribers for 2017,” says a report by The Convergence Research Group published in April. The study is titled The Battle for the American Couch Potato: Online & Traditional TV and Movie Distribution.
The report goes on to say that by the end of 2017 about 25% of all American households will be cord cutters. That works out to be a little over 30 million US households that are not paying for a traditional pay-TV service.
2016 was a clear breaking point in the growth of cord cutting. The rate and growth of cord cutting is picking up month by month, and 25% may be a low estimate. With a growing list of options for live TV like Sling TV, , DIRECTV NOW, and more it is becoming very easy to be a cord cutter.
Traditional pay-TV is never going away. There are always people willing to pay a premium price for premium service, but it seems its days as the gateway to your entertainment are coming to an end. As more Americans become cord cutters more services will start to offer cord-cutting friendly options to try and cash in on the market. The only question now is how will the traditional pay-TV services adapt to this ever-changing world.
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