Commentary
Cord-Cutting Grows: 22% of Consumers Have or are Considering Ditching Cable
- by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, January 6, 2012
We’re cutting the cord and we’re not cutting the cord.
A just released report from Deloitte on the state of the media business said that 9% of U.S. consumers have ditched their cable or satellite service and another 11% are considering canceling. The reason? They can watch the shows they like online. What’s more, another 15% of respondents say they will most likely watch movies and TV shows via online video options in the near future, suggesting that consumers are becoming more willing to try out new ways to watch shows.
Those numbers will likely keep growing because viewers are simply more conversant watching TV shows via other devices. Deloitte also found that 22% of consumers had watched a TV show from a free online source (such as Hulu) in the last six months, while 21% had watched from a show’s Web site; both figures are on par with the year before. About 9% of consumers used a gaming console to watch TV, up from 6% in 2010; and 6% had used a smartphone, up from 5% a year ago. About 3% are watching TV on tablets. Meanwhile, about 42% of respondents had streamed a movie online, up from 32% a year ago, and 28% in 2009. The findings come from a survey of nearly 2000 consumers in the United States about their media preferences.
“Our data shows that while Americans may be less interested in physical content, their appetite for digital content continues to grow. That appetite, coupled with the introduction of new technologies, is leading consumers to access the content they want on a number of different devices,” said Phil Asmundson, vice chairman and U.S. media & telecommunications sector leader, Deloitte LLP, in a statement.
So does all of this translate into actual cord-cutting? Leichtman Research Group has found that over the past year, the major multichannel video providers have added about 240,000 video subscribers.
Interestingly, the Deloitte study contains some data points that underscore increasing usage of multichannel video features. In 2011, about 35% of respondents used their DVR (what are the other 65% of you doing???), up from 32% a year ago. Meanwhile, 26% of consumers had used on-demand, up from 20% in 2010.
There is plenty of compelling data underscoring that cable and satellite operators are continuing to grow video subscribers. And there is compelling data to indicate consumers are totally cool with watching TV shows and movies online.
Let’s just hope the pie keeps getting bigger, shall we?
If the Comcast's & AT&T's of the world offer nearly the same content either via phone or internet offerings is it really cutting the cable? The consumer will be buying from someone, and no matter if it is one service from one providor, 3 services from 3 providors or all three from one, they are all still the same: moving digital bytes to the consumer. Little by little, online content is getting covered in advertising, not only before and after video segments, but during the segments in popovers. If on over-the-air TV has 25% of the time advertising, online (in some extreme cases) has 100%, and no fast foward button. (or that capability is blocked). (some shows even block DVR FF'ing)...........
My wife has about 200 hours worth stored up on the DVR. If she doesn't watch it the next day, she never will. (and at some point I will delete it, and she wont miss what she missed).....
You are right Chris that we will be buying something from some company or a variety thereof and ads are inevitable. The difference is the cost of services and how important live news and sports are on the large screens until people can easily hook up their smaller ones to the big ones. We'll see.