Cord-Cutting Seen Likely Among iPad Users, Says Report

FRISCO: Almost 34 percent of iPad owners are likely to cancel their pay-TV service within the next six months, according to new research from Texas-based firm The Diffusion Group (TDG).

"Despite the fact that cord-cutting remains more widely discussed than carried out, forward-looking research continues to accumulate in support of the hypothesis that specific groups of consumers are quickly warming to the idea," said Michael Greeson, TDG’s founding partner and director of research. "Certainly this applies to iPad owners and intenders."

TDG says that iPad owners are more prone to canceling a pay-TV subscription than those who plan to buy an iPad—"intenders"—(13.5 percent say they are likely to cut the cord) and than average adult broadband users (9.6 percent). The report adds that 12.9 percent of iPad owners are "highly likely" to cut the cord, versus 6.4 percent for intenders and 4.3 percent for average broadband users. Plus. 35.5 percent of iPad owners and 29.5 percent of intenders are likely to downgrade their pay TV service in the next six months, with 27.4 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively, indicating they are highly likely to do so.

"Many new video purveyors such as ivi.TV and Sezmi are looking to rapidly achieve mainstream status by casting the widest net possible with little in the way of targeting, outside of general ‘bad times’ messaging," Greeson noted. "It is TDG’s belief that it may be more lucrative to focus on specific user groups who are more inclined toward anti-incumbent behavior, a descriptor that certainly applies to iPad owners and intenders."