Pay-TV households set for rapid decline
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Michelle Clancy
| 07 August 2019

The total number of pay-TV households in the US this year will drop 4.2% to 86.5 million, according to a report from eMarketer.

At the same time, the number of streaming-only households is expected to grow 19.2%. If the rate of decline holds steady, satellite, cable and telco pay-TV services will fall below 80 million households by 2021, while a fifth of US homes will have cut the cord. And, by 2023, the number of pay-TV households in the US will total 72.7 million, with 56.1 million left without a traditional pay-TV package.

However, eMarketer’s cord-cutting totals include those taking up pay-TV operators’ vMVPD/skinny services.

Satellite providers like DISH Network and DirecTV will be hit the hardest, losing 7.1% of their household subscriptions this year. Telcos and cable will see declines of 4.6% and 2.4%, respectively.

“As programming costs continue to rise, cable, satellite and telco operators are finding it difficult to turn a profit on some TV subscriptions,” said Eric Haggstrom, eMarketer forecasting analyst. “Their answer has been to raise prices across the board, and it seems that they are willing to lose customers rather than retain them with unprofitable deals.”

Meanwhile, the total time spent watching traditional TV daily is expected to drop 3% to three hours and 40 minutes on average, eMarketer added.