The percentage of U.S. homes that subscribe to a pay TV service has dipped to 75%, down from 84% in 2014 and 87% in 2009, according to Leichtman Research Group (LRG).
With the rate of cord-cutting reaching an all-time high of -3.8% in the third quarter, erosion of the pay TV ecosystem is hardly unexpected. But the aggregate impact is somewhat interesting, nonetheless.
Related: Cord-Cutting Will Reach -3.8% in Q3, Analyst Says
LRG noted the steadily increasing price of pay TV service: The mean subscription bill is now $109.60, an increase of 6% since 2016.
The findings come from LRG’s latest annual report, Pay TV in the U.S. 2019, which is based on a telephone survey of 1,115 households.
As expected, much of the news for cable, satellite and telco video operators is bad.
> 60% of U.S. pay TV subscribers bundle TV with other telco services, down from 67% in 2014.
> 83% of adults 45 or older subscribe to a pay TV services, compared to 64% of those ages 18-44.
> For the first time since 2010, less than half (47%) of U.S. TV sets are connected to a pay TV set-top.
> 27% of TV homes have an over-the-air antenna; the figure is 57% for non-pay TV homes.
> 54% of TV households have both pay TV and SVOD service.
“Three-quarters of households that use a TV currently subscribe to a pay-TV service. This is similar to the total receiving an SVOD service,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “With more options for watching live and on-Demand video, consumers are increasingly choosing to cobble together the services that meet the viewing and economic needs of their household.”
