The number of people who have cut the cord and moved to the more custom approach to TV of streaming has been on the rise during the last decade. Currently, 25% of homes in the U.S. are signed up for broadband internet services without pay-TV, and that number is only expected to rise. According to research from TDG, 54 million households will be broadband-only by 2025, a 42 percent increase from 2020’s 38 million.
Back in 2010, only 8 per cent of US broadband households didn’t have a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD) like Dish, Xfinity, etc, as streaming was relatively new and viewed as more of a supplement to pay-TV. But that percentage doubled to 16% by 2015, then 35 per cent in 2020, and the 42 percent it is today.
“A decade ago,” adds Hockenbury, “the BBO segment was comprised almost exclusively of bleeding-edge adopters; those defined by a fascination with new products and services and a pocketbook to fund their experiments. Today, the BBO segment is largely defined by early-mainstream dispositions: buying only when the price has come down, the technology has peer-demonstrated benefits, and plenty of support is available.”