Parks Associates: Cord-Cutting Reaching 7 Percent in U.S. Pay-TV Homes

NEW YORK: A new report from Parks Associates finds that the number of households planning to "cut the cord" is reaching 7 percent for U.S. broadband households with pay-TV service.

The report, Under Attack: Assessing New Threats to Pay TV, finds that consumers are watching more than 30 hours of video per week on average, but the amount of homes that have a pay-TV service and are planning to cancel it is on the rise. “The pay-TV industry is experiencing a slow crisis in terms of paying customers,” said Brett Sappington, the director of research at Parks Associates. “Content is key to attracting and retaining consumers, and consumers are now looking beyond pay TV for that content. The new deal between Apple and HBO to stream the HBO Now streaming service to Apple devices is just the latest example. At the same time, companies like Google and Amazon are getting into the content-creation business, providing a new competitive threat to the traditional ecosystem.”

“Consumers have extensive content choices, including live TV, VOD and OTT streaming, and they are using multiple interfaces to access desired content,” added Barbara Kraus, the director of research at Parks Associates. “For consumers, the lines are blurring between CE makers, operators and content providers, so they will make their decisions, first and foremost, based on who has the desired content and secondly on who provides the easiest method to find and consume that content.”