Cord-Cutting Lower in Western Europe Than U.S.

NEW YORK: New research from Parks Associates shows that 16 percent of Spanish pay-TV households subscribed to pay TV for the first time last year, though the country’s broadband homes still have a high incidence of cord-shaving, cord-cutting and cord-nevers.

The Connected Consumer in Europe report reveals Spanish consumers are more likely than consumers in other Western European markets either to have never had pay TV or to have cancelled pay TV in favor of online video sources.

“First-time adoption of pay TV is up among Spanish broadband households as is the penetration of pay TV overall,” said Brett Sappington, the director of research at Parks Associates. “The Spanish pay-TV market in general has a very active, cost-conscious base of subscribers, with higher-than-average rates of downgrades and upgrades and a substantial population of cord-nevers.”

While Spain exceeds the U.S. in percentage of cord-cutters and broadband households that watch online video, in the other surveyed countries—the U.K., France and Germany—the incidence of cord-cutting is far lower than in the U.S.

“The percentage of consumers in the U.K., Germany and France cancelling pay-TV services and instead using online video is half the rate seen in the U.S. market,” Sappington said.