Maybe cord cutting’s not such a threat
Study finds fewer are planning to cancel their pay TV plans
November 9, 2015
Cord cutting is a lot like global warming.
Everyone has an opinion on it, and there’s disagreement over whether it actually exists.
Last week brought new evidence that cord cutting might not be quite the threat it had been made out to be during the first half of the year, when pay TV subscriptions appeared to be decreasing faster than ever.
First came a new report from TDG Research, a firm that monitors media habits, which found the number of people planning to cancel their pay TV service had declined for the first time in years.
Then came a round of earnings calls with satellite and cable providers and networks that seemed to back up that finding. Cable subscribers appear to be steadying, after a period of decline.
The TDG research found that 5.7 percent of pay TV subscribers surveyed said they were moderately or highly likely to end their service in the coming six months.
That was down from 7 percent in previous surveys.
TDG notes that was the first time in five years that the level of people saying they planned to cut the cord had significantly changed
Those saying they would definitely cancel their pay TV plans went down by half, from 2.9 percent to just 1.4 percent.
And third quarter cable data seemed to bear out those results. Comcast, for instance, lost only 48,000 subscribers, its smallest turnover in six years.
Time Warner Cable said it had lost only 7,000 subscribers during the quarter. And DirecTV actually gained 26,000 subscribers.
Meanwhile, Disney confirmed an uptick in subscribers to its newest channel, SEC Network, and said revenue rose 12 percent at its cable networks, stronger results than it posted earlier in the year.
Does this mean definitively that cord cutting is not a threat? No, just as losses at pay TV providers the past few years doesn’t mean cord cutting was the huge problem it’s often made out to be.
Cord cutting is clearly happening, but whether or not it’s a real danger to the industry probably won’t be clear for another few years, when there’s more data to examine.
Tags: cable, cutting the cord, cord cutting, pay tv, millennials, pay cable, millennails cord cutting
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