GfK: Pay-TV ‘Defectors’ Outnumber ‘Desirers’

NEW YORK: More than 70 million American consumers are thinking about making changes to their subscription TV services, according to a new GfK MRI report, with there being twice as many pay-TV "Defectors" as those looking to maintain or add to their pay-TV services.

The report, Cord Evolution, explores U.S. consumers' usage of traditional and streaming content services and profiles various groups on the "cord spectrum," among them "Cord Nevers," "Cord Cutting Regretters," "Cord Loyalists" and "Cord Returners." Defectors are those who have reduced their paid (cable or satellite) TV service or are thinking of doing so. GfK estimates that there are 50 million pay-TV Defectors in the U.S. "Desirers" are largely loyal pay-TV subs and/or those considering adding pay-TV services. There are about 22 million in the U.S.

Defectors have slightly higher incomes than Desirers ($62,000 per year, versus $60,000) and stream less: 62 percent of Defectors streamed video in the past month, versus 72 percent of Desirers. GfK also reports that Defectors are generally older than Desirers, are less likely to have children in their households, and are more likely to be male.

Desirers are generally more receptive to advertising and binge-viewing, tend to be more passionately engaged with TV content and rank live-TV viewing as being important to them.

“Today’s TV landscape has transformed into one big ‘trade-off’ ecosystem,” said Christie Kawada, executive VP of product management and innovation at GfK MRI. “Unless you are willing to pay for it all, you have to choose which services are within budget, and take which shows you get with them, sacrificing others in return. The good news for content providers is that content still drives most viewing behavior; so regardless of where content is offered, viewers will find a way to get it. What that means for content providers and distributors is that, first, viewers have not hit their threshold yet for ‘enough’ content. And, second, it is up to the experts in the TV space to figure out how to monetize and upsell on an ever-cannibalizing business model.”