U.S. TV consumption has crossed an important threshold, with households more likely to rely on only streaming than exclusively use pay TV.
According to the latest Leichtman Research Group’s report, 20% of U.S. homes pay for at least one subscription VOD streaming service but not a pay TV platform. Conversely, only 14% of U.S. homes pay for a cable, satellite or telco channel bundle, but don’t have an SVOD service.
In the 18th iteration of LRG’s Pay TV in the U.S. report, the company found that 74% of U.S. households still have pay TV of some kind, whether it be cable or a virtual MVPD. This compares to 85% in 2015, 88% in 2010 and 82% in 2005.
Notably, 38% of those that moved in the past year do not currently get a pay-TV service – a higher level than in any previous year.
In all, 60% of U.S. homes have both linear pay TV and SVOD. Six percent of homes have neither pay TV or SVOD.
Among traditional linear pay TV users, 79% also have an SVOD service. And 96% of homes getting linear pay TV from an internet-delivered service (vMVPD) have an SVOD service like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video.
“Traditional pay-TV services from cable, satellite, and Telco providers are now in less than two-thirds of U.S households, while an increasing number of households are opting to get live pay-TV from Internet-delivered vMVPD services,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Consumers continue to choose the video services that best fit their households’ needs. For 60% of households, this includes both pay-TV and SVOD services.”
