Market research company GfK says that a quarter of U.S. TV households do not have either a cable or satellite subscription, with younger people even more likely to be over-the-air-only viewers than the general population.
That comes from GfK's 2016 Ownership and Trend Report, which shows that 17% of U.S. TV households rely on broadcast service, up from 15% in 2015, while another 6% say they rely on internet video services including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu or YouTube and do not watch either broadcast or traditional pay TV, up from 4% in 2015.
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Interestingly, the younger demo (18-34) is most likely to opt for broadcast versus cable with 22% saying they are using over-the-air reception versus an MVPD and 13% saying they were using their TV sets to view internet video.
“The fact that a statistically significant increase in broadcast-only reception occurred over just one year may be further proof that the cord-cutting/cord-never phenomenon is accelerating,” said David Tice, senior VP in GfK’s media & entertainment practice. “If you include homes that have no TVs at all – about 3% of all households – then less than three quarters (73%) of US homes continue to have pay TV service, with the attendant implications for all stakeholders – not just the pay TV services themselves, but also networks, content providers, and advertisers.”
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The study, a part of GfK’s The Home Technology Monitor reports, was conducted among 3,009 households.
