US cord-cutting set to slow
Details
Editor
| 04 April 2019

Despite overall falls in their number from 105 million in 2010 to 91 million in 2018, US traditional pay-TV subscribers totals now set to slow their fall until 2024 says a Digital TV Research study into cord-cutting in the country.

The data in the North America Pay TV Forecasts report shows that the US will lose three million pay-TV subscribers in 2019 – less than the decline of 3.8 million in 2018. Annual losses will diminish after 2019 seeing the total number fall to 81 million by 2024.

Digital TV Research calculates that the number of US TV households that do not have a pay-TV subscription will quadruple from 11.34 million in 2010 to 48.56 million in 2024. The number of homes without a TV set will climb from 1.27 million in 2010 onto 9.49 million in 2024.

Looking at platforms, the report suggests that even though cable will likely have has lost 15 million subscribers between 2010 and 2024, most of these losses have already taken place. The research shows that there were still 19.50 million analogue cable subscribers in 2010.

The number of IPTV subs peaked at 12.56 million in 2014 and will fall to 8.32 million in 2024, while satellite TV subscriptions will fall by 5 million between 2018 and 2024, having declined by 2 million in 2018 alone.

In terms of the business ramifications of the cord-cutting that will still be taking place, the North America Pay TV Forecasts report calculates that pay-TV revenues peaked in 2015, at $105.85 billion and that there is going to be a $30 billion decline (29%) between 2015 and 2024 taking the total to $75.66 billion. Satellite TV revenues are set to drop from $39.58 billion in 2018 to $31.28 billion in 2024, representing a fall of 21%.