nScreenMedia reports on the slow death of traditional pay TV in the US.
- Traditional pay TV, such as cable and satellite TV, lost 6.8 million subscribers in 2022, a 9.2% loss.
- Household penetration is projected to fall below 50% in 2023.
- The major reasons for the acceleration in subscriber cancelations include price increases, the availability of premium sports on streaming platforms, and the success of streaming originals.
- There are now 62.8 million US homes that do not have cable, satellite, or telco TV, and it has been decades since the proportion of homes with traditional pay TV was below 50%.
- Virtual MVPDs like YouTube TV and Hulu Live are helping some homes maintain access to the big bundle of TV channels, but the industry’s gains were small compared to traditional pay TV losses.
- The decrease in people with access to the big TV channel bundle has greatly impacted how we spend our time watching television.
- Cable’s share of total television usage falling and streaming’s share of viewing time increasing by more than 10%.
Why it matters: pay TV’s decline re-directs $$$ and attention across the sector.