The influx of new video streaming services and the escalating war for content among them is beginning to make cord-cutting a less appealing option for your wallet than it once was, but you can't reverse the natural progression of technology.
Streaming is now the dominant entertainment medium for everything but live sports, and cable TV providers continue to lose millions of subscribers each year.
According to a report from Leichtman Research Group, major pay-TV providers lost approximately 2.875 million net subscribers in 2018, while satellite TV services lost 2.36 million. The top pay-TV providers still account for 89.1 million subscribers, with the top six cable companies counting 47 million video subscribers and satellite TV services still holding around 29 million subscribers. These net subscriber losses have snowballed over the past half-decade, from only 125,000 in 2014 to nearly 1.5 million in 2017 and almost doubling a year later.
Subscriber gains from Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (vMVPDs), which deliver "skinny bundles" of TV channels over the internet, are not enough to offset cable's losses. Leichtman Research Groups found that the top publicly reporting vMVPD services, DirecTV Now and Sling, added around 640,000 subscribers in 2018 compared to 1.6 million net adds (subtracting those who canceled their service) in 2017.
Subtracting vMVPD numbers, traditional pay-TV services lost over 3.5 million subscribers in 2018 and 3.1 million in 2017. At the same time, subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video are in more homes each year. Netflix reported 149 million paying subscribers as of this month, and SVOD household penetration reached 69 percent in 2018, up from 64 percent in 2017 and enjoying a steady climb from 47 percent in 2014.
With a slew of new SVOD players on the horizon, including tech and entertainment powerhouses such as Apple TV+ and Disney+, that figure will only rise. Armed with an imposing content library featuring Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, National Geographic, and a vast array of classic movies and shows from the Disney and 21st Century Fox vaults, Disney projects that Disney+ will have 60 to 90 million subscribers by 2024.
People Are Using Streaming Services More Than Cable
Get Our Best Stories!
Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Sign up for other newsletters
