• by Wayne Friedman , December 4, 2013

Pay-TV” cord-cutting” and “cord-thinning” climbed a bit in the third quarter -- perhaps with higher activity to come. Among pay TV customers -- representing some 90% of U.S. TV homes -- 17% either trimmed pay TV networks/services or removed them completely in the third quarter of this year.

This number was up from 14% in the second quarter and 13.4% from the first quarter, according to to Digitalsmiths, a video discovery company.

The research also indicates that 34% of respondents answered “maybe” when it came to changing their pay TV company. Nearly 7% are planning to change their cable, satellite and telco company; almost 3% are planning to cut service altogether, and 2% will switch to a third-party app or service.

Still, 54.2% said they would maintain their existing service.

Overall satisfaction of pay TV providers was at 58.6% -- about the same compared to other recent periods. But the research notes that those “unsatisfied” climbed over previous periods to 21.5%.

Among respondents, 43.6% are paying more for TV service versus a year ago; 39.3% are paying the same, and 17.1% are paying less. Over 21% of TV consumers are paying $151 or more per month for all TV, Internet and phone services; 16.9% are at $126 to $150; 19.4% are at $101 to $125; 19.3% are at $76 to $100; and 15.5% are at $51 to $75.

The survey was produced by a third-party service for Digitalsmiths in the third quarter of this year, conducted among 3,177 consumers in the U.S. and Canada, 18 years and older .