NEW YORK—Warner Bros. Discovery today unveiled its plans to separate the company into two publicly traded companies—one focused on its streaming services and the second on its cable business, confirming plans it announced last December.

The “Streaming & Studios” company will consist of Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, as well as their film and television libraries. Global Networks will include entertainment, sports and news television brands worldwide, including CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., and Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, and digital products such as Discovery+ streaming service and Bleacher Report (B/R).

The separation is expected to be completed by mid-2026, subject to closing and other conditions, WBD said.

David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, will serve as president and CEO of Streaming & Studios. Gunnar Wiedenfels, chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, will serve as president and CEO of Global Networks. Both will continue in their present roles at WBD until the separation. The company also announced that it is borrowing $17.5 billion from J.P. Morgan to finance the restructuring.

“The cultural significance of this great company and the impactful stories it has brought to life for more than a century have touched countless people all over the world,” Zaslav said. “It’s a treasured legacy we will proudly continue in this next chapter of our celebrated history. By operating as two distinct and optimized companies in the future, we are empowering these iconic brands with the sharper focus and strategic flexibility they need to compete most effectively in today's evolving media landscape.”

Added Weidenfels: “This separation will invigorate each company by enabling them to leverage their strengths and specific financial profiles. This will also allow each company to pursue important investment opportunities and drive shareholder value. At Global Networks, we will focus on further identifying innovative ways to work with distribution partners to create value for both linear and streaming viewers globally while maximizing our network assets and driving free cash flow."

"We committed to shareholders to identify the best strategy to realize the full value of our exciting portfolio of assets, and the Board believes this transaction is a great outcome for WBD shareholders," added Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., Chair of the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors. "This announcement reflects the Board's ongoing efforts to evaluate and pursue opportunities that enhance shareholder value.“

“The merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery three years ago has had mixed results with many analysts lamenting the fact that a high-profile studio wasn't better positioned to exploit its high-value legacy content. High debt, a challenging streaming market and a continued increase in cord-cutting have had a negative impact on the company’s bottom line. CNN announced earlier this year that it would cut 6% of its workforce. And in a recent publicized misstep, the company botched its rebranding of HBO Max to Max, reversing its decision last month to return to the HBO Max moniker.

This was reflected in today’s announcement when the company noted that the split will allow WBD to “to be faster and more aggressive in pursuing opportunities that strengthen their competitive positions,” and form “world-class management teams focused on creating greater strategic flexibility and focus so that each business can invest in and pursue its operational and financial goals.”

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast continued to hemorrhage pay TV subs, but reported better than expected earnings and saw strong growth in its streaming operations in Q2 2023 with Peacock nearly doubling its subscriber count year-over-year to 24 million. 

Despite the pay TV sub losses and growing losses from streaming, the stock rose on better than expected earnings of $1.13 per share.

In addition to the rapid sub growth at Peacock, revenue from the streaming operations increased by 85% year-over-year to $820 million of revenue but Peacock had an adjusted EBITDA8 loss of $651 million in Q2 2023. That compared to $444 million of revenue and an Adjusted EBITDA8 loss of $467 million Q2 2023. 

Comcast reported a slight decline of 19,000 broadband subs to 32.305 million subs while domestic pay TV declined by 543,000 to 14.985 million. That represents a dramatic loss in video subs from Q2 2022 when the company had 17.144 million subs. 

Overall, its total customer base declined by 228,000 to 52.28 million. 

One in three Canadians have canceled at least one subscription video on demand service in the past month according to new research from Angus Reid Institute, a non-profit Canadian research firm. At least half said the cancellations were due to inflation, while others (39%) said they weren’t using certain services as much and nearly 25% said the canceled service didn’t meet their expectations. 

However, more than four-in-five (85%) now say they have at least one streaming service subscription, up from approximately half in 2016.

Another popular trend in the Great White North is cord-cutting: Just three-in-five now say they subscribe to cable or satellite TV, according to the survey. This represents a five-point drop from 2018 and a 27-point drop over the past decade. 

This trend is primarily with younger viewers as 82% of Canadians over the age of 54 say they still subscribe; compared to only 41% of 18- to 34-year-olds. More than three quarters of respondents don’t believe they’re getting their money’s worth from their pay-TV subscriptions, with 40% planning to cancel in the near future. 

Back to SVOD, a majority (65%) of Canadians subscribe to more than one, including two-in-five (40%) who subscribe to three or more, although ARI notes that password sharing could mean that the actual total of subscribers reported may be higher than the number of individual subscriptions.

Canadians over the age of 64 are the only age group of whom a majority do not subscribe to more than one streaming service, but still two-in-five (41%) of this age have access to at least two. Meanwhile, half of Canadians aged 35 to 54 (48%) subscribe to three or more SVOD services.

The results are from an online survey conducted from Oct. 11-13, 2022 among a representative randomized sample of 1,618 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum.

A new survey from cordcutting.com concludes that the majority of cable and satellite TV customers think they’re wasting their money on their subscriptions, based on the paltry number of channels they view. 

The survey, the website’s first since 2019, showed that these pay-TV subscribers have access to 190 channels but regularly only watch 15 of them. As expected broadcast networks and ESPN came out on top of the popularity poll. It also showed that the average cable TV monthly bill is grown from $96 to $147 since 2019, an increase of 52%. 

That rise has likely been driven by the continued increase in cordcutting, prompting pay-TV operators to increase prices in response; as well as increases in broadcast and sports rights costs. 

The survey also showed that the share of Americans watching cable or satellite TV has plunged by more than 20 percentage points from 2015 to 2021, with another 4.7 million households cutting the cord in 2021 alone. Meanwhile, streaming has become more popular—despite Netflix’s recent woes, the industry is up as a whole with spending on streaming growing 20 percent in 2021.

But when it comes to pay-TV subscriptions, the survey showed that nearly two out of every three subscribers think they’re not getting a good deal and 45% of cable TV subscribers saying that they would cancel their television packages if they weren't tied to their internet service provider.

In terms of the number of channels watched, the survey showed that out of the average lineup of 190 channels overall, subscribers watch only 15. By paying $147 per month to watch only 15 channels, the survey concluded that that averages out to $9.57 per channel watched, which rivals the average fee for an OTT streaming service. This results in an annual average of  more than $1,600 “wasted” on subscription fees, up from $1,088 in 2019 according to cordcutting.com.

The cost is even higher for the many viewers who watch fewer stations—less than 50%percent of pay-TV subscribers regularly watch more than 10 channels, and less than a quarter regularly watched 20 or more channels in their subscription.

Cordcutting.com said that many pay-TV subscribers continue their subscriptions out of habit and the lack of knowledge over their viewing options. 

“For less than half of the price of the average cable or satellite subscription, customers could obtain basic subscriptions to most major streaming services (and for a few dollars more, they can access ad-free versions),” said Stephen Lovely, cordcutting.com managing editor in a blog post. “Some viewers resist completely cutting the cord out of unfounded fear that they'll lose live television access. In reality, the major broadcast channels are free with a digital antenna, Paramount+ (CBS) and Peacock (NBC) carry live network streams, and other platforms (Apple TV+, Prime Video) are already adding live sports to compete with ESPN.

"With streaming options providing nearly all the services as cable TV at more affordable prices, it’s hard to understand why anyone stays with cable or satellite packages," Lovely added. "Perhaps that’s why industry experts expect the number of cable TV subscribers to soon drop to 50 million unless rising streaming prices drive a resurgence.

DURHAM, N.H.—The largest pay TV providers continue to hemorrhage video subscribers, losing about 1,955,000 net video subscribers in Q1 2022, compared to a pro forma net loss of 1,910,000 in Q1 2021, and 1,960,000 in Q1 2020, according to a new study from the Leichtman Research Group (LRG).

The largest pay TV providers in the U.S.—representing about 93% of the market—now account for about 74.1 million subscribers. The top seven cable companies have about 40.5 million video subscribers, other traditional pay TV services have 26.2 million subscribers, and the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay TV services have about 7.4 million subscribers, LRG reported. 

“Pay TV net losses of about 1.95 million in 1Q 2022 were similar to the net losses in the first quarters of 2021 and 2020,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc.  “Over the past year, top pay TV providers had a net loss of about 4,735,000 subscribers, similar to a loss of about 4,820,000 over the prior year.”

Other key findings for the quarter include:

• Top cable providers had a net loss of about 825,000 video subscribers in Q1 2022 – compared to a loss of about 780,000 subscribers in Q1 2021.
• Other traditional pay TV services had a net loss of about 625,000 subscribers in Q1 2022 – compared to a loss of about 865,000 subscribers in Q1 2021.
• Top publicly reporting vMVPDs had a net loss of about 505,000 subscribers in Q1 2022 – compared to a loss of about 265,000 subscribers in Q1 2021.

The report found that Comcast is the largest pay TV provider with 17.66 million video subs (down 512,000 in Q1, 2022), followed by Charter (down 112,000 subs to 15.72 million), DirecTV (down 300,000 to 14.3 million), Dish TV (down 228,000 to 7.99 million), Hulu + Live TV (down 200,000 to 4.1 million), Verizon FiOS (down 78,000 to 3.57 million), Cox (down 80,000 to 3.31 million),  and Altice (down 73,600 to 2.66 million). 

For more information about LRG, call (603) 397-5400 or visit www.LeichtmanResearch.com.

LONDON—A new report for Digital TV Research is forecasting 19 million more pay TV subscribers across 138 countries between 2021 and 2027, but revenues will decline by $25 billion over the same period, as cord cutting in the richer countries with higher sub fees will reduce average revenue per subscriber (ARPU).

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, explained that “between 2021 and 2027, 86 countries will add pay TV subs and 52 countries will lose subscribers. Most of the countries gaining pay TV subscribers are developing nations, with low ARPUs. The U.S. will be the biggest loser – down by 12 million subscribers.”

The report is also predicting that IPTV will add 79 million subscribers globally between 2021 and 2027 to take its total to 439 million. Satellite TV will lose 10 million subscribers between 2021 and 2027. 

Revenues will decline in 70 of the 138 countries between 2021 and 2027. The U.S. will fall by $19 billion. Global satellite TV revenues will drop by $14 billion, with digital cable down by $10 billion. Analog cable will lose $1 billion. IPTV will grow slightly. 

For more information on the Global Pay TV Forecasts report, please contact: Simon Murray, simon@digitaltvresearch.com, Tel: +44 20 8248 5051 

Cable video customer losses, which improved over the past few quarters during the pandemic, are back on the rise, according to a Moody’s Investor Service report. 

While broadband subscriber growth exploded during the pandemic, lesser known was the impact stay-at-home orders had on pay TV video customer rolls. During Q3 2021, video losses tempered enough to cause a handful of analysts to rethink their forecasts. Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall modified his 2025 prediction for total pay TV video losses from 4.7 million to 4.3 million; MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett expected cable video losses to spike to 2.4 million in 2021, falling to 1.98 million by 2025.

In his most recent report, Moody’s senior VP Jason Cuomo noted that the Video Replacement Rate (VRR) for the sector, a measure of the pace at which broadband is replacing traditional video subscriptions, fell to 1.5 times in 2021 from 2.21 times in the prior year. While that seems like a big improvement for video, it was more a factor of dramatically slower broadband growth. According to Cuomo’s report, broadband additions in Q4 slowed to 4.1% from 4.2% in Q3, while pay TV subscriber losses rose to 6.4% from 6.2% for the year.

In his report, Cuomo concluded that the temporary benefits from the pandemic are beginning to disappear and, coupled with newer subscribers taking only high-speed Internet services, should drive video’s decline higher as broadband additions even out. 

“Video losses will continue to be driven by weak attachment rates to broadband subscriptions among younger consumers, and a loss of existing subscribers because of ongoing cord-cutting by those switching to video streaming,” Cuomo wrote. “Rising penetration rates in residential and commercial markets, and gains from expansion of the footprint (new builds, overbuilds, and edge-outs) will continue to support broadband growth.”

While the two largest cable operators — Comcast and Charter Communications — had relatively strong increases in broadband subscribers (4.3% and 4.2%, respectively), their video losses varied widely. According to Moody’s, Comcast’s average video loss rate was -8.4%, while Charter’s was -2.4%. Comcast and Charter account for about 83% of cable video customers.

According to Moody’s, only three cable companies increased their VRRs in the period — Cable One (from 36.4 times to 85.1 times), Breezeline parent Cogeco Communications (from 7.5 times to 8.1 times) and WideOpenWest (from 0.7 times to 1.1 times). Charter had the biggest drop (from 54.7 times to 45.6 times) followed by Block Communications (from 1.8 to 1.4)  and Comcast (from 1.3 to 1.1).   

Revenue growth for the sector in Q4 was 4%, down from 7.2% in Q3 and 6.1% for the same period in the prior year. Cash flow growth fell to 5.9% in Q4, down from 9.6% in Q3 and 7.7% in Q4 2020. That, Cuomo wrote, was directionally consistent with the VRR trends. 

“We believe the slower growth is at least partially attributable to a difficult comparison to 2020 given the temporary benefit of the pandemic, which peaked during this time,” Cuomo wrote. “Growth, while at a lower level, is supported by the continued shift to lower-priced, higher-margin broadband (from higher-priced, but much lower-margin video).”

Broadband, he continued, accounted for about 54% of the total subscriber mix in Q4, and was nearly 2 times video subscribers in the period, up 20% from 1.7 times at the end of 2020. 

DURHAM, NH—The largest U.S. pay TV operators saw fewer subscriber losses in 2021 than in 2020, according to Leichtman Research Group.

The research firm reported that pay-TV providers in the U.S. representing about 93% of the market lost about 4,690,000 net video subscribers in 2021, compared to a pro forma net loss of about 4,870,000 in 2020.

The top pay-TV providers now account for about 76.1 million subscribers, with the top seven cable companies having 41.3 million video subscribers, other traditional pay-TV services having over 26.8 million subscribers, and the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services having 7.9 million subscribers.

Key findings for the year include:

• Top cable providers had a net loss of about 2,695,000 video subscribers in 2021, compared to a loss of about 1,940,000 subscribers in 2020;
• Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 2,890,000 subscribers in 2021 compared to a loss of about 3,845,000 subscribers in 2020;
• Top publicly reporting vMVPDs added about 895,000 subscribers in 2021, compared to a gain of about 915,000 subscribers in 2020
• Traditional pay-TV services (not including vMVPD) had a net loss of about 5,585,000 subscribers in 2021, compared to a net loss of about 5,785,000 in 2020

“While the pay-TV industry continued to lose subscribers, net losses in 2021 were fairly similar to those in recent years,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc.  “In 2021, the top pay-TV providers had a net loss of about 4.7 million subscribers, compared to a pro forma loss of about 4.9 million subscribers in 2020, and 4.1 million in 2019.”

CINCINNATI—EW Scripps reported a drop in Q4 earnings this week but said it expects strong political advertising for the 2022 mid-terms and increased national network viewership. The station group—which owns 61 stations in 41 markets—also announced that it would launch an initiative to promote its free over-the-air broadcasts to cordcutters. 

Scripps predicts that it will log about $270 million in political advertising revenue this year, up about 40% from the last mid-term election year and would help drive an approximately 50% year-over-year increase in 2022 free cash flow, to a range of $400-$450 million.

Net income dropped to $40.2 million, or 43 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, from $244.7 million, or $1.35 a share, a year ago. Q4 revenue was up $5.3% to $622 million, which Scripps attributed to its acquisition of Ion Media.

CEO Adam Symson said Scripps’ five Nielsen-rated entertainment networks increased viewership year over year, contributing to fourth-quarter revenue. And unlike most station groups, which have ignored promoting their free over-the-air broadcasts, (despite the growth in cordcutting over the past decade), Scripps said it will launch a campaign to promote its national networks. It left out any mention of NextGen TV, however. 

(Read: Free TV Once Again Relevant & Vibrant In the Self-Bundling Era)

“Scripps Networks already capture 25% of viewing in the expanding OTA marketplace, and as we move through 2022, we are devoting ourselves to continued viewership and revenue growth,” Symson said. “Among our plans is a marketing campaign on how to watch over-the-air TV and the wide range of quality content you find on it. 

"This campaign is  part of Scripps’ effort to carve out our own valuable corner of the television ecosystem: free, ad-supported  platforms such as OTA, FAST [free, ad-supported television] and AVOD [ad-supported video-on-demand] that serve subscription-weary Americans.”  

In terms of television delivery, the adage “what’s old is new again” seems appropriate.

And this time, the “old” is more attractive.

The television industry has constantly evolved since the inception of commercial broadcasting in the 1940s and has experienced three fundamental phases.

• The first was the “free TV era.” Viewers received VHF and UHF channels at no cost using over-the-air (OTA) antennas. The only downside was limited choices, so technologies were developed to address this latent demand.
• Then came the ascendancy of cable and satellite delivery, providing paying subscribers with more than a hundred networks, even if they were only interested in a few. At its peak, about 90% of homes opted into this all-you-can-eat buffet on their televisions.
• We have now entered a new era, again driven by technology, with the emergence of on-demand streaming services. Some carry monthly fees like Netflix and Disney+. Others are free, like the growing number of AVOD services and FAST platforms such as Pluto and Tubi. Some services are hybrids like Peacock and Hulu that offer both free and paid subscriptions.

At Scripps, we have labeled this the “self-bundling era” because consumers can now decide which combination of services is optimal for their needs.

Retain cable and add two streaming services? Cut the cord and subscribe to six? Which six?  

In a country of 122 million homes, we could end up with nearly 122 million different combinations. Even within a home, viewing options will vary based on whether a room has a smart TV—and which brand.

Based on the facts, Scripps believes free, over-the-air TV will play an important role in this new era. According to the Consumer Technology Association, about 8.5 million digital antennas are sold in the U.S. each year. Household penetration for antennas has been growing, and today, nearly 1 in 3 homes has one—up from 26% in 2019 to 32% in 2021. Many own more than one.

50M Households by 2025?
Antenna owners include a surprisingly even mix of cable/satellite subscribers vs. non-subscribers. Cord-cutters, and cord-nevers, use antennas to watch content that isn’t widely available on SVOD services, such as local news and live sports.  Cable and satellite homes use antennas to watch TV on unwired sets and watch channels not included in their subscription packages. OTA access is just another item to consider when assembling one’s self-bundle. And it’s free.

Digital antenna penetration is likely to continue to grow at a steady rate.  According to projections, OTA could eclipse 50 million U.S. homes by 2025.  Content is likely to be a huge driver. After all, assembling the optimal mix of content breadth and depth is the guiding principle of self-bundling.

If you don’t have an antenna, you may be surprised to learn how many channels you can receive with this simple device. A common misconception is that OTA only includes the major broadcast networks, one or two independent stations, a PBS affiliate, and perhaps a few shopping and religious channels. In reality, the offerings typically include more than two dozen multicast networks—also known as “diginets.” These networks are carried on the transmissions of traditional TV stations via digital compression. 

The most widely viewed networks include MeTV (classic series), Grit (westerns), Bounce (African American-targeted series and movies) and Start TV (off-net dramas). Additional networks feature sci-fi, comedy, movies, sports, how-to and other unscripted reality programming, and more. Two former cable networks, Newsy and Court TV, have been revived as free over-the-air multicast networks. Six new multicast networks launched last year alone.

70% Audience Growth
The dramatic increase in the number and diversity of multicast networks, coupled with vastly improved and attractive content, has resulted in almost 70% growth in audience for this segment over the past five years, per Nielsen. During this same period, cable network audiences declined by nearly one-third.

The biggest obstacles to OTA being a part of more consumers’ bundles are awareness and familiarity. As previously noted, non-owners of antennas underestimate the number of networks they can receive with a digital antenna.  They also don’t realize that over-the-air networks are different from the ones available via cable and satellite packages. Unaware consumers may also perceive antennas as settling for an inferior package. But research indicates that OTA households are more satisfied overall with their bundles than MVPD subscribers.

Improved technology will be an additional driver of OTA adoption. ATSC 3.0 (also known as NextGen TV) promises improved reception, better sound quality, the ability to watch on mobile devices, targeted datacasting and other benefits. It has already begun rolling out market-by-market.

Additionally, a new generation of “smart antennas” work with home Wi-Fi and enable users to watch OTA content on-demand and to more easily record broadcast programs with built-in DVR functionality. They also can provide return-path data – which is hugely important for audience measurement and for allowing addressable advertising.

The bottom line: Even though antennas hearken back to an earlier era, they have evolved and now are helping to shape the self-bundling equation, and this won’t change going forward. The original delivery system for television has become one of the most attractive.  

For one thing, you can’t beat the cost.

LONDON—A new research report from Graybo found that nearly two thirds (64%) of those who watch sports in the U.S. would exclusively watch sports on online streaming platforms if they could and that 56% of sports fans in the U.S. said they want more live events streamed to social media. 

In addition nearly half (46%) wanted more instant highlights published to social media. 

The survey also found that 42% in the U.S. would pay up to $10 to watch sports on a streaming platform and that 37% would pay up to $25 dollars a month. 

Globally the “Sports Video Trends 2021” report surveyed 15,000 consumers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, India, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

In terms of the global data, 73% of global sports fans are men, but there has been an 18% increase in female sports fans since 2019. 

Overall, more than one third of global consumers regularly watch sports, ranking it as one of their top three most viewed types of video. 

Globally the survey found a notable shift in sports viewing from traditional TV subscriptions to streaming, with the number of sports fans watching games via TV subscriptions declining by 9% since 2019 while streaming services increased by 41%. 

The global survey data showed that many sports fans are cutting the cord, with 23% saying they’ve dropped pay TV service and another 27% saying they planned to drop those services in favor of online video services in the next five years. 

Smart TV and smart phones (each with 56% of sports fans around the world) were the most popular way to watch sports, according to the survey. 

Globally, the survey found that 65% of sports fans would like to see more live sports and events on social media. 

The report can be accessed here. 

HARROW, U.K.—A new report finds that the global pay TV business is fragmenting with the top 50 pay TV operators serving about 62% of the world’s 1.02 billion pay TV subs in 2026, down from 64% in the middle of 2020, according to Digital TV Research. 

Its new "Global Pay TV Operator Forecasts" is predicting that the top 10 global operators will lose about 11 million subs over that five year period, dropping to 412 million in 2026 and the top 50 operators will lose about 20 million, declining to about 627 million in 2026.

In contrast, the report predicts that the operators outside the top 100 will gain subs. 

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, noted that “most industries consolidate as they mature. The pay TV sector is doing the opposite – fragmenting. Most of the subscriber growth will take place in developing countries where operators are not controlled by larger corporations.”

By the end of 2020, 13 operators had more than 10 million pay TV subscribers. China and India will continue to dominate the top pay TV operator rankings, partly as their subscriber bases climb but also due to the US operators losing subscribers, the report noted. 

Between 2020 and 2026, 307 of the 503 operators (61%) will gain subscribers, with 13 showing no change and 183 losing subscribers (36%). 

In 2020, 28 pay TV operators earned more than $1 billion in revenues, but this will drop to 24 operators by 2026, the report also predicated. 

The  "Global Pay TV Operator Forecasts" report covers 503 operators on 726 platforms (132 digital cable, 116 analog cable, 279 satellite, 142 IPTV and 57 DTT) across 135 countries. 

ELLISVILLE, Mo.—When people were forced to quarantine in their homes over the last year, investing in TV and streaming services was a popular way for many to stay informed and entertained. But now that Covid-19 vaccines are allowing the world to slowly open up again, many consumers are planning to reduce their spending on TV services, according to a new study from Antennas Direct.

In its “Post-Covid TV Viewership” report, Antennas Direct found that during quarantine two out of five consumers said they limited spending elsewhere to better afford cable and streaming subscriptions. Now, four in five admit they will need to cut back on these TV services post-Covid to pay unaddressed bills or household utility costs, while others hope to use that spending on other activities.

Asking more directly what consumers plan to do, Antennas Direct found that half intend to keep all of their TV services post-Covid, while one in three already have plans to cut cable or streaming services and two in five plan to cut more than one type of service. A quarter of respondents want to get their monthly TV spending down to around $50 per month.

“While Americans have tolerated the financial strain that has come with subscribing and sharing services, this simply isn't feasible in the post-COVID world,” the report said. “Our research shows that many plan to cut services and lower costs to fund household expenses or experiences outside of the home. This doesn’t just hurt providers, it hurts consumers who are forced to choose between paying their electric billing and having access to their local news to stay informed.”

Antennas Direct then notes that over-the-air TV, which it works to provide OTA service via digital antennas, is an avenue that consumers can go to maintain access to some of the services cable and streaming provides while cutting costs.

For the full report, visit Antennas Direct’s website. 

NEW YORK—The rise of cord-cutting may be reaching its end, according to a 2020 outlook report from Evercore ISI. After years of an increasing number of consumers dropping their traditional pay-TV services, 2020 will see those numbers dipping.

After a reported 5.45 million lost subscribers in 2019, Evercore sees the number of consumers cutting their pay-TV plans to drop to 4.8 million. This is the first overall decrease in cord-cutters since 2015.

A major contributing factor to this fact, per Everscore, is that many of those who will have a traditional pay-TV subscription are committed to their services because of what they offer in sports and new content. Of 600 surveyed pay-TV customers, two-thirds of respondents said they are willing to pay at least $50/month for sports and news channels alone.

There are a number other factors that are contributing to the cord-cutting environment, including vMVPDs, SVODs and others.

Everscore found that vMVPD subscriber growth has slowed, with the category adding less than 1 million subscribers overall in 2019; this follows net additions of 2.5 million in both 2017 and 2018. In addition, the vMVPD market lost one of its outlets with the shutdown of PlayStation Vue. Everscore contributes this slowdown to lower promotional discounts, higher list prices and a possible increase in password sharing.

Similarly, another weak spot for pay-TV subscriptions that occurred in 2019 could be due to a promotional issue with DirecTV. As part of an apparent “purging” strategy, DirecTV has discontinued a two-year price lock promotion that may have inflated its numbers between 2018 and 2019 by nearly 1.4 million. The end of this promotion could have resulted in the loss of 700,000 video subscribers in 2018 and 2019, each. Those high cut rates could go away now that the promotion is over.

On the other side, SVOD is expected to experience a growth acceleration in 2020 thanks to the launch of new services, the scaling of young services and the continued growth of mature services. Apple TV+ and Disney+ launched in 2019 and are expected to see continued growth, while HBO Max and Peacock are slated for 2020 launches and to garner a fair amount of interest. There could be as many as 30 million incremental subscribers in the U.S. for these services in 2020, per Everscore.

For more information on this report, visit www.evercore.com. 

NEW YORK—The story of the ugly duckling is not currently applicable to the pay-TV market based on recent numbers detailing the loss of subscribers—rather than turning into a beautiful swan, the pay-TV market is getting uglier and uglier.

This is based on the third quarter 2019 report from MoffettNathanson on media earnings. Having described the second quarter of the year as “freaking ugly” at the time, the latest results have the analysts taking a deep dive into the dictionary to find a more accurate descriptor.

With the four video distributors that reported as part of MoffettNathanson’s research—AT&T, Charter, Comcast and Verizon—it was revealed that 1.74 million video subscribers left their services in the third quarter, more than 240,000 than was originally estimated. Of the four, AT&T saw the largest exodus, as the company reported that it lost 1.1 million premium video subscribers and an additional 200,000 for its AT&T TV Now service (formerly DirecTV Now). That represents 80% of the departing video subscribers.

As a result, the rate of traditional cord-cutting has hit a new low of -6.2% over the last year. Even the cushion of cord-cutting helping to build the virtual MVPD market has become less certain, with MoffettNathanson believing that price hikes for these services will keep them from stemming the bleeding as the overall cord-cutting rate has also reached a new low of -3.8%. Just 15 months ago that rate was under -1%, per MoffettNathanson.

For cable affiliate fees, this will all contribute to a growth of 3% in the third quarter, -300 basis points slower than the same period last year. That rate is expected to continue to decelerate in Q4.

Things aren’t looking to much better for advertising. With NBCU and Turner Networks reporting, the domestic national is in the negative for Q3. MoffettNathanson expects that to hold true when other companies report in the coming weeks.

“Since AT&T provided initial guidance of massive subscriber losses in early September, media investors have been bracing for an even uglier quarter than 2Q, which we labelled “freaking ugly,” MoffettNathanson wrote in its report. “Well, with earnings now in the books for Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Charter, we can definitively say that the early read on traditional cord-cutting is uglier than ever before.”

The increased interest among streaming networks to enter the live televised sports market will cause more fragmentation, challenging the domination of traditional broadcast networks. At the same time, the state of Regional Sports Networks is changing, affected primarily by 21st Century Fox’s sale of its RSNs to Disney.

These are among the findings of Market Intelligence’s “2019 Sports Report,” detailing the business of live televised sports.

“Live sports content is a highly valuable commodity in the television industry,” the report cites. “The current media landscape is challenging both operators and networks to maintain margins while traditional pay TV subscribers decline and programming expenses increase.”

According to the report, the NFL “arguably” produces the most valuable content on television and with contracts expiring with Fox, CBS and NBC in 2022 (and ESPN in 2021), the increasing interest among OTT players like Amazon Prime to enter the market will prompt new rights packages that reflect new realities.

“There are early discussions around breaking up the AFC and NFC packages for the next round of negotiations, with digital service providers increasingly expressing interest in bidding on streaming rights,” the report said.

In addition, with cable operators continuing to hemorrhage subscribers via cord cutting (many of which are trying to escape expensive sports channels) and the cost of rights packages on the rise, this could have an impact on the value of so-called “linear” (broadcast) vs. digital rights, according to the report.

“An area of interest for the next couple of years is how the leagues will decide to distinguish between linear and digital rights,” the report noted. “The cable bundle continues to lose subscribers, negatively impacting network margins. At the same time, digital rights have thus far been packaged and sold separately from linear rights. If this continues, there could come a time in the next few years where one entity owns digital rights and another owns linear. In this scenario, the value of local linear rights would diminish, at least slightly, as there would be—for the first time in a local market—competition for viewership in protected in-market territory.”

For Regional Sports Networks, there have been several new entrants in the past year, such as ESPN+, YouTube TV, Amazon, Sinclair and FloSports, that have had an impact. But perhaps the biggest effect comes from the sale of 22 RSNs to Disney as part of its $71.3 billion acquisition from 21st Century Fox, according to the report.

“The surviving Fox entity will focus on live sports and news but is exiting the local sports rights business, citing major differences from local versus national sports rights segments,” the report said. “New Fox's more focused strategy will presumably make it a bigger force in the national sports segment.”

Despite the rise in per subscriber costs in the pay-TV market for sports (for RSNs, it’s an average of $13.30 per subscriber, overall, $5.83 when adding in all multichannel networks), the report notes that the costs still pale in comparison to the even higher expense of attending games in person.

“While the cost to access live sporting events as part of channel lineups has increased over the years—and fees within the pay TV industry are head and shoulders above the non-sports channels—the cost to attend games in person is even more eye-popping,” the report said. “From a sports fan's perspective, there is value in paying industry-leading sports programming fees, compared to following a team in person or being disconnected from tuning in.”

The bottom line is that for televised sports, the disruption caused by the increasing number of digital newcomers (including the various professional leagues’ own streaming services) coupled with increased sports rights costs will require viewers and networks to fasten their seatbelts for a bumpy ride.

“Networks are in a predicament as there seems to be no sign that sports rights fees will slow and yet cord cutting and cord shaving is causing most sports channels to bleed subscribers, putting increasing pressure on the bottom line,” the report concludes. “And the fact that most sports rights are wrapped up in long-term deals for many years to come makes it difficult for channels like NBCSN and FS1 to become a powerful competitor to ESPN.”

These days, every technology that introduces even the smallest wrinkle into an existing marketplace or business model is quick to declare itself “disruptive.” Most turn out to be interruptive, at best, some not even that. But if you’re an existing player in the MVPD ecosystem—or even a potential one—you should be preparing for radical change in the very near future. 5G is coming, it’s coming fast, and it’s going to leave bodies scattered in its wake. Just two or three years from now, cable giants are going to look back at the current cable-cutting trend as “the good old days.”

5G is a big, disruptive technology that promises several things. It boasts super-low latency, facilitating delivery in near-real time, and it provides enormous capacity, which enables broadcasters to push a tremendous amount of content through the pipeline. What’s most important—and potentially disruptive—about 5G, however, is the fact that it’s over-the-air technology.

PITCH AND CATCH

5G’s premise is a pitch-and-catch ecosystem built around microtowers and tiny receptor chips. The chips can be embedded in virtually any device—an OEM TV, a stick or a whole-house router. 5G is an ideal platform to deliver video services, linear or on-demand, because it can push tremendous amounts of content in all kinds of formats, including hi-def and 4K TV. Users can have an independent device that receives those services without having to go through an intermediary modem or MVPD network architecture. Since the device can be anywhere, it eliminates the need for a big pipe coming into the home, as well as the bandwidth issues that constrict legacy ecosystems.

That’s going to be a major problem for cable companies saddled with sunken costs in fiber, network and last-mile infrastructure. They’re faced with the spectre of legions of customers dumping $200-a-month cable bundles in favor of new 5G-enabled services that will probably be in the $60-$80 range, including content and transport.

But 5G will also create tremendous opportunities. The big winners will be mobile carriers, like T-Mobile and Verizon; content companies, which will no longer be constrained by access to cable companies’ bandwidth; consumers, who are likely to have greater access to more and better content at lower cost; and marketers, who will be able to make their messaging more relevant and personalized, and pursue new sources of revenue. ARPU (average revenue per user) is still going to sit on a combination of subscription, advertising and micropayments, but ratios are going to change, and whole new lines of ARPU are going to emerge.

The companies that control existing wireless towers are in the best position to capitalize on 5G’s promise. They are already in the business of putting up towers and distributing services through the wireless infrastructure, so they have deep expertise in this area. It’s worth noting that all the bandwidth delivered in the U.S. comes through fiber optic networks, and those networks were massively overbuilt and underutilized. Every year the transport algorithms and delivery pitch and catch endpoints make the fiber more efficient. They have a tremendous amount of excess capacity that can be used to deliver content to cell towers for broadcast using 5G technology.

It’s likely that some of the wireless carriers will jump into the 5G market with new services of their own. Their costs of operation are going to be extraordinarily low, although some of them will be hobbled by their legacy video services. New companies creating 5G devices and existing content companies like Netflix and Hulu can piggyback on the excess capacity by wholesaling it from wireless carriers.

THE ‘LAST MILE’ HAS GOTTEN LONGER

As 5G penetration expands rapidly over the next two to three years, the economic picture for the companies that own the fiber to the main towers and for those who own the sites where microtowers will be installed remains strong. Where it blows up is in the so-called last mile (it’s actually more than a mile now), where 5G wireless delivery eliminates a massive amount of cost and makes it easy for content companies to go over the top of MVPDs.

The table has also been set for lobbying (by AT&T and Verizon) and a change in regulations that almost eliminate barriers to put up microtowers. This can be thought of like eminent domain on buildings without obstructions from state, local and municipalities.

Other aspects of the 5G value equation include the vast amount of proprietary first-person data it will make available to marketers and the acceleration effect it will have on the growth of television-based commerce (t-commerce). Those factors will play major roles in the evolution of new ARPU models. Traditional mass market retailers and food delivery services will be able to provide new opportunities to their customers by creating their own ecosystems enabling immediate activity. Imagine a cooking show featuring a famous chef making a great meal where viewers can have the recipe and ingredients sent to their homes, so they can make it themselves that same night. Symbiotic experiences like that have the potential to magnify customer engagement and create new sources of ARPU.

Advanced services will thrive in the 5G ecosystem. Providers will be able to make the content they serve more relevant, personalized and interactive to their viewers. Marketers can dynamically associate ads that are extremely relevant to the content being served at the specific moment when the viewer’s interest is at its peak (finally, there are ad solutions for binge watchers). Closed attribution capabilities will also enable entirely new types of sponsorship opportunities, supporting two-way communication with customers and providing immediate transaction opportunities. Ultimately, the potential that 5G offers to greatly improve messaging relevancy and personalization could reduce marketers’ total cost of advertising.

The radical disruption that 5G will bring to the MVPD ecosystem is not something on the far-off horizon. We will see 5G products and services being introduced and markets being activated before the end of 2019—in fact, expect a flurry of announcements in the second and third quarters of 2019. Full 5G saturation may still be a couple of years off, but it’s coming fast. The technology exists, the standards have been approved and you can bet that the big companies most likely to be affected by it—for better or worse—are working hard to figure out what they need to do.

David Rudnick is the chief technology officer and co-founder of Connekt. 

CHICAGO—Results of a December 2018 survey released this week by Waterstone Management Group paint a rather dire picture for the cable TV industry: 59 percent of subscribers nationally have cancelled their plans and another 29 percent are considering it.

“I think it is pretty obvious that cable TV is going to go away, at least in the form that we’ve known it,” says Andy Kerns, creative director of Digital Third Coast and primary researcher on Waterstone’s cord-cutting survey. ”I think the story right now is about how quickly it is happening.”

Idaho registered the highest percentage of people who have cut the cord at 72 percent, followed by Kentucky at 70 percent, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona at 69 percent and South Dakota at 68 percent.

The states with the lowest percentage of unsubscribes include Virginia at 51 percent, Alabama and Massachusetts at 50 percent, Pennsylvania, Hawaii and Connecticut at 49 percent, Mississippi at 47 percent and New Jersey at 36 percent, the survey found.

Seven states had too few responses to be included in the analysis, according to Waterstone. They included Louisiana, Alaska, Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wyoming and North Dakota.

Although the survey didn’t examine why people are cutting the pay TV cord, Kerns identified price and original content as likely reasons. “Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services were initially competitive on price,” he says. “But they have also been investing in an incredible amount of original content. That seems to have accelerated this battle with traditional cable.”

The survey also did not ask about the efforts of traditional pay TV providers to preserve subscribers by offering their own SVOD services.

For the survey, Waterman contacted 5,000 people age 18 to 69 across the United States via Mechanical Turk, an Amazon-powered survey platform. Respondents were paid to participate.

More information is available on the Waterstone Management Group website.

Part 1

Journalism, worldwide, is in crisis. The bottom of its nosedive is not yet in sight. There are far more reporter layoffs than hires. Numerous technologies—the internet for one—and revenue-sucking behemoths—like the Google/Facebook duopoly—are shaking up legacy means of newsgathering and distribution. Digital disruption is harming journalism far more than benefiting.

News delivery via newsprint is on death watch. On the TV side, linear news delivery via the news show format is dying more slowly, but surely. A dwindling number of airwave, cable and satellite news consumers are willing to tune in at a certain time, at a certain place, on a certain screen and patiently wait to get the news and entertainment they really want. No wonder internet/IP-centric technologies like video-on-demand, next-gen, over-the top (OTT) television will soon overtake certain-time TV. No surprise that broadcast giants are scrambling to deliver their information and entertainment wares through OTT.

Even though most news publishers and broadcasters have long been online, many of their web offerings are merely rehashed versions of their offline products. Being there is not the same as succeeding there. “Digital first” has really meant “print first” and “video last.”

The “pivot to video” has been a colossal failure for most newspapers. “Those who pivoted to video didn’t really understand how expensive it is to produce high-quality video if you don’t have the infrastructure necessary to support it,” said Trevor Fellows, vice president of digital strategy for NBC.

Of course, television news outlets already had infrastructures in place to produce online video—no pivot needed. But, pretty much across the board, that infrastructure consists of outmoded, ponderous, expensive equipment and workflows. Bottom line: neither publishers nor broadcasters, generally, are very good at producing online news video.

Because the web is 24/7, its news outlets need cheaper, more mobile newsgathering equipment and much faster, less expensive video production systems and methods. Legacy television stations can’t come close to meeting a demand for online news by taking reporters off the street. Some are laid off, others converted to so-called "multimedia reporters" who spend more time in the newsroom than in the field. Resorting to shameless aggregating and clickbaiting isn’t working either. New technologies and workflows need to not just improve news distribution but also the quality and quantity of news content.

Happily, there are glimmers of hope. One is NBC’s bold, plug-pulling move in connection with its recent partnership with Euronews. At the 2018 IBC Show in Amsterdam Deborah Turness, the new president of NBC News International at NBC News, announced their discontinued reliance on ENG cameras and SNG trucks. 

“We’ve cut the cord with cameras and trucks, and armed our network of 100 percent mobile journalists with iPhones, LiveU and Osmo,” she said about her remaking of Euronews. “I think we’re the only major  news operation to only deploy iPhones having cut the cord with cameras and trucks.”

Euronews may not actually be the first major news outlet to turn fully to mobile journalism. Last year New Delhi Television (NDTV) switched to a video journalism model where its reporters shoot and edit news video using Samsung smartphones, a change the press referred to as mojoification.

But what Turness is doing is a much bigger deal. Where financially troubled NDTV acted more out of desperation— to cut costs—NBC is acting more out of inspiration—to add speed and mobility. If successful NBC could hasten journalism’s snail’s-pace shift from ENG to smartphone newsgathering, a transition that will become as big or bigger than the pivot from film to ENG in the late 70s and early 80s. That film-to-ENG transition not only facilitated live reporting, but also sophisticated editing of news packages. It’s now something smartphones can accomplish with teeny-weeny appliances and cellular connections at relatively minuscule cost.

Savings could and should be used to put more, quick-reacting boots on the ground. Turness refers to her “small army of journalists” equipped with mobile phones. She calls it “real-time journalism” where “you can go places and engage with people with a mobile phone in ways you cannot with a camera person and a big camera.” “You disrupt the oxygen in the room when you enter with a TV crew normally,” she told IBC attendees. “When you go in with an iPhone you are small and quite innocuous.”

Taking another swipe at conventional ENG/SNG live reporting she said iPhone journalism “is a more authentic, transparent way of storytelling. Our reporters are not perfectly coiffed, standing on a riser with a light and a cable plugged into a truck. They are on the move, they take you with them.”

Turness told The Drum, a European marketing website, “When you look at television news as a product I feel it is looking very tired and out of step.” “While other news organizations have dabbled with iPhone journalism it’s often as a supplement when the other camera isn’t working”.

That supplement status is doing little to rescue journalism. Until smartphone newsgathering largely displaces ENG/SNG those outmoded technologies and workflows will continue wasting huge sums that could be spent to hire, train and equip mobile journalists thereby increasing the quality and quantity of video stories available to news consumers.

Turness may understand that smartphone newsgathering and ENG can no longer peacefully co-exist. The only way to take the handcuffs off smartphone newsgathering is to lay ENG/SNG technologies and workflow to rest and give them the honorable burial they deserve. 

Coming up, Part 2: Euronews’s iPhone Journalism: What Could Go Wrong?

MONTEREY, CA–Cable and satellite TV providers continue to shed subscribers as the rate of cord-cutting accelerate in the third quarter, according to several new research reports.

According to MoffettNathanson, more than 1 million viewers severed their subscriptions to cable and satellite TV services in Q3, the most ever in a quarterly earnings period. The four largest U.S. pay-TV providers--AT&T (DirecTV), Comcast, DISH and Charter lost 887,000 subscribers in the quarter, with the satellite TV providers taking the brunt of the loss.

Media Research firm Kagan released similar figures, noting that cable lost 1.1 million subscribers year-to-date so far, their worst performance at the three-quarter mark since 2014. Satellite providers lost 726,000 subscribers in Q3 and traditional telco subscriptions fell by 94,000, with Verizon alone shedding 63,000 subs alone during Q3. The current number of multichannel video program subscribers stands at 91 million, including 88.2 million residential customers, according to Kagan.

Kagan’s quarterly analysis now includes total virtual multichannel subscriptions from services such as Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV and PlayStation Vue. The combined virtual platforms gained an estimated 2.1 million subs in the trailing 9 months, compared a decline of 2.8 million in the traditional segment.

Leichtman Research Group reported a loss of approximately 975,000 subscribers for the pay-TV market in Q3 compared to a pro forma loss of 410,000 in Q3 2017. Among “skinny bundles,” LRG focused on those provided by AT&T/DirecTV and DISH, noting that its Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW services added only 75,000 subscribers in Q3, compared to about 530,000 net adds in Q3 2017. This was the fewest in any quarter since their debut.

Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. noted the danger such trends mean for DBS providers in particular.

“Satellite TV services had more combined net losses in 3Q 2018 than in any previous quarter,” he said. “These net losses were largely driven by corporate strategies focused on acquiring and retaining more profitable subscribers (as well as a programming carriage issue between DISH and Univision). A related emphasis on improving the profitability of the satellite TV company’s Internet-delivered flanker brands reduced net quarterly adds in the segment, resulting in vMVPDs not helping to mitigate overall pay-TV losses to the degree they had in recent quarter

In addition to lost subscription revenues, cord-cutting is hitting pay-TV’s advertising base as well. eMarketer recently downgraded its TV ad revenue estimates for 2018, decreasing the rate of growth to just .5 percent to $71.65 billion, down from the previously estimated $72.72 billion. eMarketer predicts that TV’s share of total media ad spending in the US will drop to 34.9 percent, and is expected to fall below 30 percent by 2021.

While the TV business already has seen an alarming number of consumers go over-the-top to get their TV programming, a new study says even more subscribers would cut the cord if the knew they could still get live programming, particularly sports.

According to a white paper from Telaria and Adobe, called "Inside the Minds of Cord-Cutters and Cable-Keepers," consumers lack awareness about the live streaming content that is available to them.

Among the consumers the report labels “cable keepers,” 20 percent don’t know how they would access live TV without a cable subscription.

“Despite steady declines in subscribers, cable still dominates viewership,” the report said. “The primary reason people keep the cord is the perception that only a linear connection can deliver live television content (42 percent). The second and third most common reasons are the desire to have a lot of channels (34 percent) and the fear of losing favorite networks (32 percent).”

Long term, sports and other live events may be reason enough to keep traditional pay TV. The report found that 30 percent of cable keepers said they would cut the cord if they knew they could live stream all of their favorite sports, events, and news.

[Read: Cord-Cutting Pace Accelerates As Viewers Seek Premium Programming, Says EMarketer]

The streaming world appears to be mystifying to cable keepers, with 55% saying that they are are confused by their cord-cutting options.

“Despite the barriers, almost half of cable subscribers have or are considering cutting the cord,” the report said. “This is especially true among Millennials, who outpace older segments in cord-free status. One in three cable subscribers would definitely cut the cord if they could live stream their favorite sports, events and news, and an additional 40% would consider it. Sports fans are even more likely to consider cutting the cord if they could live stream programming.”

The study found that the top reason for cord cutting were that cable was too expensive (73 percent), that everything was available via streaming (36 percent), that there were too many channels on cable (36 percent).

To the cost-conscious, two ways of accessing content have become more mainstream: password sharing and digital antennas.

The study found that 16 percent of respondents said they use someone else’s password from a network or provider to authenticate an app on a device. Another 21 percent share their passwords with friends and family.

More of the live streamers--70 percent said they were satisfied with the monthly price they paid for service, compared to 40 percent for cable-keepers.

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—A group of companies including developers of antenna and hardware/software technologies have created a new marketing coalition to make it easier for consumers to view over the air broadcast with streaming services.

In the announcement of its formation last week, the companies, which include Antennas Direct, Hauppauge, Nuvyyo, Pixelworks, Plex GmbH, Resonian, and Shenzhen Geniatech cited the complexity cord-cutters face when trying to combine OTT/streaming services with free over-the-air local broadcasts.

“As a growing number of consumers abandon traditional cable and satellite subscriptions to gain increased control over content selection and the associated cost of video entertainment, they are often faced with added complexity as well as limited or overpriced access to local broadcast TV channels,” they said. “The genesis of FlexVU is a mutual end-goal of helping consumers “select the most seamless and high-performance cord cutting solutions, including the ability to access TV content from anywhere with a connected display device.”

[Read: Cord-Cutting Pace Accelerates As Viewers Seek Premium Programming, Says EMarketer]

As part of its initiative, the coalition said it would be advancing what it termed “a broader ecosystem under a newly recognized and industry-supported brand.”

Along with offering so-called “skinny bundles”—lower cost OTT services which target cord-cutters—several consumer electronics vendors like DISH and TiVo have made recent attempts to integrate OTT and OTA. Earlier this year, DISH launched “AirTV” an over-the-top, over-the-air service that gives customers access to dozens of over-the-air broadcast channels across multiple devices inside and outside of the home. Last week TiVo introduced its “Bolt OTA for Antenna” which combines OTT and over-the-air signals, delivering four tuners and a one terabyte hard drive capable of recording 150 hours of HD programming. The company describes the new box as a an “upgrade” to its “Roamio” DVR, which targets cord-cutters and has been available for four years.

Likewise, FlexVU member Nuvyyo offers its Tablo device that features an OTA tuner that provides DVR-type services to over-the-air viewers, as well as the ability to stream OTA signals to home Wi-Fi setups.

The coalition defined five elements that make up the FlexVU initiative—TV antenna, TV tuner, transcoder, software for the user interface and a DVR that allows consumers to view content on any device anywhere. It has also launched a consumer education portal www.flexvu.tv, which includes specific product and component recommendations, testimonial videos from FlexVU partners and useful links to tools, such as a Channel Finder to help consumers determine what local TV channels can be access based on their zip code. In addition, the FlexVU Web site has a helpful animation that provides an easy to understand overview of the key benefits and messages of the FlexVU initiative.

The monthly Comcast bill arrived earlier this month and it was $28 higher with no services added. Time to cut the cable, the TV cable anyway.

The first task had nothing to do with technology, TV shows or saving money. It was convincing my spouse that cutting the cable was a good idea. After some gentle persuasion, she consented.

The next step was purchasing two Rokus for streaming. They installed easily and without a hassle. I also subscribed to DirectTV Now, which I mistakenly thought would give me unlimited live network TV, but I later discovered that’s not always the case. Irritatingly, networks and other content providers often make you jump through activation hoops the more you watch. Worse, we could not get full or live PBS programming.

So it was back to the future with over-the-air TV (OTA) using an antenna or what we Boomers used to call an aerial. I acquired a ClearStream FUSION Amplified UHF/VH HDTV outdoor antenna with a 60 mile range from AntennasDirect.com, the go-to people for antennas and advice about how to install them. The company provides a great video about to install it EXCEPT they omit talking about grounding the unit. More on that later.

The $100 unit (full disclosure: I acquired mine as a review unit through TVtechnology.com editor Tom Butts) is well built and easy to set up. Running a new coaxial cable is the biggest chore, but if you’re lucky with your antenna location, you can use existing cables installed by the cable provider. Higher is better for reception, which AntennasDirect can help customers with based on the location of area TV towers relative to your address.

I chose to run a new cable given the location of the unit on my roof. So drilling through a wall and running the cable outside and up to the antenna and around a couple of corners was the biggest chore. I pulled in 16 channels after running the required scan on my TV. The pictures are crisp and clear except NBC cuts out a good deal of the time.

Then I realized I had to install a ground on the mast and the cable. But with a house sitting on ledge next to a river in Maine, there was no way I could sink an 8-foot rod into the ground nor did I want the 10 gauge uninsulated ground wire dangling down the side of house beneath the antenna.

So I took the antenna off the roof and moved it into my attic, an atrociously hot, dangerous and dirty place to work accessible only by hatch. I hoped putting the antenna a dozen feet higher from the rooftop location would compensate for moving the antenna indoors. Indeed, the attic location picked up 16 digital TV channels including the three major networks, Fox and PBS with some pixilation especially with NBC, but not enough to matter much.

A few caveats: my unit purports to be good for more than one TV although AntennasDirect support told me reception takes a hit with that approach. Bear in mind, they want to sell more antennas. They also told me longer cable runs (don’t go more than 100 feet) affects reception adversely.

My OTA journey has been a success given from what I’ve learned and the satisfaction from cutting the TV cable. I also saved $100 a month in process, but still am beholden to Comcast for Internet. OTA and streaming are still somewhat of an adventure, but clearly are the future if not the present.

John Dodge is a freelance journalist living in West Newbury, Mass. 

NEW YORK—Many U.S. consumers may be cutting back or cutting out their pay-TV subscriptions, but the percentage of customers who remain loyal to their cable, satellite or IPTV service remains strong, according to the findings of new research from GfK MRI.

The research, New Cord Evolution, finds that 71 percent of all U.S. consumers say they subscribe to a pay-TV service, and 97 percent of them say they are not looking to cut the cord.

While younger viewers who grew up with smartphones and tablets are often cited as the demographic group leading the cord-cutting phenomenon, the survey found that 58 percent of 18-to-34-year olds remain loyal pay-TV subscribers.

Those older are even more tied to pay-TV. Sixty-nine percent of those age 35 to 49 subscribe, and 80 percent of people 50 years old and older remain loyal pay-TV customers, it found.

[Read: Cord-Cutting Pace Accelerates As Viewers Seek Premium Programming, Says EMarketer]

“The fact is that pay-TV services still account for most of the TV watching that happens in the U.S.,” said Amy Hunt, VP of TVideo Media Sales at MRI. “Many of their subscribers simply cannot imagine a new way of doing things.”

Top reasons for continuing to subscriber include reliability and comfort. Adults ranging in age from 18 to 64 say their No. 1 reason for continuing to subscribe is they are “used to it,” followed by “convenient to have everything in one place” and “I need it to watch the shows I want to watch.”

Younger viewers between 18 and 34 cite channel surfing and access to live content as their top reasons for continuing to subscribe.

The research also revealed that 55 percent of those loyal to their pay-TV subscriptions are adding other services, such as streaming video. Seventy-six percent of 18-to-34-year-old subscribers are adding new service.

While seven in 10 remain loyal to pay-TV, this group has declined since 2015 when 77 percent of all U.S. adults subscribed. The decline is sharper still among 18-to-34-year-old respondents, with a 9-point decline from 67 percent to 58 percent over the same period.

Hunt cautions “…as younger generations more comfortable with streaming technologies set up households, cable and satellite companies need to find ways to remain attractive and relevant.”

More information is available on the GfK MRI website.

MONTEREY, CA.–Despite increasing uptake rates by so-called “skinny bundles,” cable and satellite operators continue to see declining subscription rates to their main pay-TV services, according to Kagan.

According to the media research Kagan’s Q2 2018 U.S. Multichannel Subscriber Report, cable, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and telco multichannel sectors combined lost 860,640 video subscribers in the three-month period ended June 30, 2018, ending the quarter at 92.2 million, down from 98 million the same period a year ago.

While the combined total was less than the loss of 976,000 video subscribers during the same quarter a year ago, DBS logged its second largest quarterly decline on record, losing a combined 478,000 customers, while cable logged its largest second-quarter video subscriber drop since 2015, bringing year-to-date losses to 685,790. The telco video segment improved dramatically during the period however, reducing its losses to just 56,000, or just a fraction of the pattern of quarterly losses established in the last two years, according to Kagan.

The picture for pay-TV operators improves, however, when taking their OTT-based “skinny bundles” into account. DIRECTV NOW and DISH’s Sling TV reduced the quarterly subscription losses by approximately 45 percent, raising the residential figure to 93.5 million.

The residential multichannel penetration rate stood at 75% as of June 30 when including the virtual multichannel services owned by AT&T and DISH Network (DIRECTV NOW and Sling TV).

Ocean Media, an independent media planning and buying firm, has just released “The Power of Connected Devices,” on OTT trends that illustrates the transition for viewers, programmers and advertisers. Ocean’s infographic highlights the who, how and where of “television” consumption, the speed of the transformation, and how the advertising market is shifting in its wake.

Among its findings:

• America now counts 8.8 connected devices per household--60 million devices overall

• One in three households has cut the cord

• Four in 10 “light” TV viewers are “heavy” OTT consumers

• Streaming viewership has increased 30 percent year on year, while linear viewership decreased 6 percent year on year (42 hours OTT vs. 132 hours TV)

• Ad completion rates for video per break stand at 95 percent – against an average video ad completion of 81 percent for Q1 ’18, per the IAB

• The connected population skews younger and wealthier, and tilts toward the West Coast

Despite the industry’s focus on streaming and on-demand video, linear TV dominates Americans’ time spent viewing and is on the rise, according to a new report from Nielsen.

The report found that adults spent a total of 5 hours and 57 minutes watching video during the first quarter. That’s up from 5:46 in the Q4 and 5:27 in Q3.

Nielsen has changed the way it measures digital activity and it cannot prove comparisons to a year ago.

TV programming is so pervasive it is being seen in non-TV homes, according to the Q1 2018 Nielsen Total Audience Report.

The share of homes getting subscription video-on-demand services grew to 64% from 58% a year ago in the second quarter.

The report also said that 2.7% of homes now subscribe to virtual multichannel video programming distributors such as Sling, DirecTV Now and YouTube TV.

Viewers have access to internet enabled TV-connected devices in 67% of homes, up from 61% a year ago, with 34% of homes having two or more connected devices.

Despite the increase in access to streaming video, adults spent 4 hours and 46 minutes watching live and time shifted TV, compared to 46 minutes watching on TV-connected devices, 10 minutes with video on a computer, 10 minutes with video on a smart phone and 5 minutes on a tablet.

All of those numbers were up from the previous two quarters.

In the first quarter one of 10 minutes of TV viewed in streaming homes is streaming video through a TV-connected device or smart TV. Streaming to the TV is most popular with 12- 17-year-olds at 23% of viewing, with 18-34-year-olds streaming 18% of their TV watching.

Including radio, older viewers, ages 65 and up, spent the bulk of their media time, 60%, with live and time-shifted TV.

[Read: TiVo Report Sees New TV Data Shaking Up Measurement]

Among 18 to 34-year-olds, live and time-shifted TV represents a 26% share of viewing, eclipsed by smartphone viewing with a 29% share—the largest share for any demographic group. Overall 18-34-year-old adults consume 43% of their media on digital devices.

Amid all the talk about cord cutting, Nielsen said that 81% of TV households pay for some sort of multichannel video subscription, while 13% get TV over the air and 6% are broadband only.

Using its older methodology, in which the categories are not mutually exclusive, Nielsen said total multichannel TV homes fell 0.7% to 97.043 million homes from 97.730 million a year ago.

Wired cable homes fell to 50.197 million homes from 51.783 million; satellite homes dropped to 34.705 million from 35.507 million; and telco homes were down to 34.705 million from 35.507 million.

Broadcast only homes were up 6% to 16.529 million from 15.602 million and broadband only homes jumped 55% to 8.752 million homes from 5.627 million.

Multichannel subscribers consume the most TV on a daily basis. Those couch potatoes consume 6 hours and 2 seconds on average. Over-the air households consume 4:48 of TV and broadband-only homes watch TV for 2:47 a day. Subscribers to vMVPDs watch TV for 2:20 daily.

The Nielsen report noted that about 4 million U.S. homes, or 4% of all homes, do not qualify as a TV household. But six of 10 of those households have access to the internet that would enable them to stream content and only 18% said they do not watch TV.

When asked where they watch TV, 27% of people in non-TV homes said they watch on a computer, 17% said at a friend or relatives on a TV, 13% said in a public place on a TV, 10% said on a smartphone, 6% said a tablet, 5% work and 5% other.

The top reasons for not owning at TV set or having TV reception are: too expensive or can’t afford one (22%), not interested in TV programming (18%), watch video on DVD or VCR (16%), no digital TV converter box (12%) and not enough time to watch TV (12%).

“Consumers in today’s fragmented media landscape have so many ways to discover content that matters to them. This plethora of options is shaping behavior, too, as the ability to choose the source, device, location and time becomes more and more tailored,” said Peter Katsingris, senior VP, audience insights at Nielsen. “With each passing day, consumers are able to further customize their own media usage into an individualized experience akin to a media DNA, each consumer with an ability for complete personalization.”

Katsingris added that as the media landscape evolves, Nielsen has “also made advancements in our measurement solutions and this progress is represented throughout the report.”

A new forecast from eMarketer finds the loss of traditional pay TV subscribers in the United States is accelerating as the number of people who have cut the cord and continued without cable, satellite or IPTV service will climb to 33 million this year.

That’s some six million more cord-cutters than eMarketer predicted in July 2017, the company said.

[Read: Global Online Media Usage To Surpass TV, GroupM Says]

“Most of the major traditional TV providers [Charter, Comcast, Dish, etc.] now have some way to integrate with Netflix,” said eMarketer senior forecasting analyst Christopher Bendtsen.

“These partnerships are still in the early stages, so we don’t foresee them having a significant impact reducing churn this year. With more pay TV and OTT partnerships expected in the future, combined with other strategies, providers could eventually slow — but not stop — the losses.”

At the same time, the popularity of OTT services like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu continues to grow. An increase in the number of original programs and demand for multiple services is driving the growth, eMarketer said.

“Consumers increasingly choose services on the strength of the programming they offer, and the platforms are stepping up with billions in spending on premium shows,” said Bendtsen.

The availability of live TV packages delivered over the top without the need to install hardware or incur associated fees are also a factors, he added.

More information is available on the eMarketer website.

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The number of U.S. TV homes with at least one internet-connected TV device continues to swing upward, Leichtman Research Group (LRG) found in a new study.

Some 74% of those homes have at least one such device in a category that includes smart TVs, standalone streaming players, streaming adapters and sticks, and connected Blu-ray players, LRG said in the study, "Connected and 4K TVs XV," which based findings on a survey of 1,202 U.S. TV homes.

The 2018 results are up from 65% in LRG’s 2016 study, 44% in 2013, and a mere 24% in 2010.

LRG said 29% of adults in U.S. TV homes watch video on a TV via a connected device daily, up from 19% in 2016, 6% in 2013, and 1% in 2010.

Tying into a broader trend that has seen younger viewers gravitate to OTT-delivered video, that group currently over-indexes in the 18-34 age group (43%), compared to 33% who are 35-54, and 12% among those 55 years or older.

Per the study, about 29% of all TVs in U.S. homes are connected smart TVs, up from just 7% in 2014. Among homes with any connected TV device, 57% have three or more, with a mean of 3.8 devices per connected TV home.

Across all TV homes, the mean number of connected TV devices is 2.8, versus a mean of 1.7 pay TV set-top boxes per U.S. TV home

“Connected TVs, along with Netflix and other SVOD services, are among the biggest factors driving change in the video industry over the past few years,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement. “In a short period of time, connected devices have allowed an increasing number of consumers to easily watch SVOD and other video options on the same TV screen as traditional pay-TV and broadcast offerings."

LONDON—Cord-cutting is spreading beyond the U.S. borders with declines in pay TV subscriptions touching 13 other markets, says a new report from market analyst IHS Markit.

In addition to the U.S. subscription falloff, the report, “Global Cord-Cutting Tracker 2017,” identifies declines in Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Israel, Venezuela and Ireland.

Six of the 14 markets experiencing subscriber losses also recorded declining revenue last year. However, the U.S., Brazilian, Mexican, Swedish, Japanese, New Zealand, Norwegian and Venezuelan markets were able to compensate for subscriber losses by increasing what they charge remaining customers, according to the report.

[Read: Paywizard: Cord-Cutting Trend Offset By 'Pay-TV Polygamists']

For example, the U.S. loss of 3.3 million pay TV subscribers last year was offset by upsells and price increase that ended up generating more revenue for pay TV operators, says IHS Markit.

2017 saw the first pay TV subscription decline in Latin America since 2002. While cord-cutting contributed to the loss, economic difficulties played an important role in the subscription losses in Brazil (down 617,000) and Mexico (down 192,000). In Venezuela, 16,000 subscriptions were cancelled as the country’s financial crisis worsened, says the report.

Overall, North America suffered the biggest-ever decline in annual pay TV subscriptions with 3.5 million customers evaporating. Since 2012, the region has seen a decline of 7.1 million subscribers, says the report.

By way of comparison, Netflix and other OTT subscription services have seen an increase of 101.3 million subscribers for the same period. More than 26 million OTT subscriptions were added in 2017 alone.

The sting of cord-cutting for pay TV providers extends beyond cable TV. Satellite TV subscription services in several regions are suffering, too. In both North and Latin America last year, satellite TV subscriptions declined more than any other platform. In North America, 1.8 million satellite pay TV subscriptions disappeared, while Latin America experienced a decline of 882,,000, says the report.

[Read: Millions Flee Pay-TV; Revenues Slide, Say Researchers]

One attempt to stop the bleeding has been the launch of standalone streaming services by pay TV operators that compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other OTT services. However, these services typically cost less than tradition pay TV subscriptions, have a lower average revenue per user and are worth less to providers, says Ted Hall, director of research and analysis for TV and video and IHS Markit.

Over the next five years, IHS Markit forecasts a net decline of 8.5 million pay TV subscriptions in North America as cord-cutting continues. However, Brazil pay TV subscriptions are expected to grow as the nation’s economy strengthens.

OTT subscription growth is expected to outstrip that of pay TV everywhere except for the Middle East and Africa for the period, says the report. Overall, 409 million OTT subscriptions will be added around the world through the end of 2022, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for nearly 66 percent of the growth, the report says. 

HAUPPAUGE, NY—TV receiver developer Hauppauge is responding to the current trend of cord-cutting by launching a “Remote Scheduling TV” feature to its Cordcutter TV solution that allows consumers to schedule recordings of live HDTV shows—delivered over the air for free—to view on their smartphones, tablets or digital media players.

While the Cordcutter TV has allowed the ability to record directly onto mobile devices, the new feature also adds the ability to make scheduled recordings directly on the Cordcutter TV unit. The compression technology in Cordcutter TV reduces the network bandwidth needed to stream live TV, while maximizing the battery life of phones and tablets.

Consisting of a small box that connects to a TV antenna, Cordcutter TV includes two HDTV TV receivers that can send two TV shows simultaneously via the home Wi-Fi network to iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets plus digital media players like the Amazon FireTV, AppleTV and the Roku media player.

With this new update, users can plug a USB thumb drive into the back of the Cordcutter TV device, and use the companion myTV app to schedule recordings, with each live TV hour consuming about 2 Gbytes of storage space.

The Remote Scheduling TV feature is a free upgrade to all Cordcutter TV users. The solution requires updated firmware that’s installed on the Cordcutter TV device, and the myTV app for Android, iOS and AppleTV devices. 

Vizio is bringing ATSC broadcast tuners back to its entire 4K TV lineup.

The company is launching four new 4K smart-TV lines that feature more high dynamic range (HDR) formats, higher peak brightness levels in all but the entry-level series, more backlit local-dimming zones in select models to improve black levels, and its first quantum-dot TV in two years.

The new TVs are also the company’s first TVs that can be voice-controlled through smart speakers and mobile phones via Amazon Alexa. Like last year’s models, the new models can also be voice-controlled through speakers and phones via Google Assistant.

The flagship TV is the $2,199-suggested P-series Quantum, a 65-inch model with quantum-dot display, 192 local dimming zones, 2,000 nits of peak brightness, black levels said to be “comparable” with OLED displays, and wide color gamut reaching 98 percent of the DCI P3 digital-cinema standard, or 80 percent of the Rec. 2020 standard. It’s Vizio’s first quantum-dot TV in two years after phasing out a 65-inch Reference-series TV.

As quantum-dot film comes down in price, Vizio “will see how far we can spread it” in its lineup, but the company has no current plans to do so, said John Hwang, senior director of product management.

The quantum-dot TV is among 19 smart 4K TVs that Vizio is unveiling in the D, E, M and P series of 4K smart TVs. The entry-level D series also includes some HD and FHD smart and non-smart models. Like before, all models feature full-array backlighting instead of edge-lit LED lighting for better light uniformity and contrast, Vizio said.

All 2018 smart TVs run on Vizio’s SmartCast OS, which incorporates onscreen apps and Chromecast built-in, which enables the TV to stream any one of thousands of Chromecast-enabled apps running on a mobile device.

ATSC REVISITED

All TV models feature ATSC 1.0 tuners, which in the 2017 lines were available only in the entry-level D series. Vizio brought back free over-the-air ATSC tuning in force because the company recognized that although “a large percentage” of consumers don’t watch over-the-air TV, people who have cut the cord with traditional pay-TV services see value in free ATSC broadcasts, Hwang said.

[Read: Vizio Makes ATSC Tuner-Free 4KTVs]

Because linear TV is “still a strong use case,” Hwang added, Vizio is bringing YouTube TV’s vMVPD service to its selection of embedded smart-TV apps in the spring as well as its own over-the-top (OTT) free-TV service, which it is developing with Pluto TV to let viewers stream more than 100 free Internet channels.

The as-yet unnamed service, which will include some Vizio-exclusive channels, will give users access to OTT linear-TV channels through the TVs’ onscreen GUI as well as by using the channel up/down buttons of the TV’s remote. The service will feel like a traditional pay-TV service without the set-top box or subscription fee, the company said. Channels will offer news, sports, movies, talk shows, concerts and the like.

Pluto TV’s own OTT linear-TV service is available on 2017 and 2018 Vizio smart TVs, but Vizio promises its free linear-TV service will offer content not available through the Pluto service.

HDR, peak brightness: In its 2018 lineup, Vizio is also stepping up picture performance, in part by adding more HDR options. Hybrid Log Gamma appears for the first time in Vizio TVs and will be available on all 4K models, while Dolby Vision, previously available only in the M and P series, migrates down to the “step-up entry-level” E series. Like before, the HDR 10 format appears in all 4K models.

To goose up the peak brightness levels of specular highlights on a sustained basis, Vizio expanded its user-selectable Extreme Black Engine feature down into the E series and upgraded its performance to reduce blooming, said Hwang. The feature is tied to the TVs’ multiple backlit local-dimming zones.

A longer version of this article is available on TWICE.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.

Some 12 percent of consumers 18 to 34 years old, a group that accounts for 53 percent of U.S. adults, subscribe to an internet-delivered pay TV service such as Sling TV and DirecTV Now, according to new data from Leichtman Research Group.

Overall, about 11 percent of adults 18-44 currently have an OTT TV service, compared to 3 percent among those who are 45 years or older, LRG found in an online survey of 6,947 U.S. homes that were part of its broader Internet-Delivered Pay-TV Services study. This marks LRG’s inaugural study on the topic.

OTT TV services tend to complement other ways consumers are fulfilling their video needs. For example, LRG found that among those with an OTT TV service, 93% also subscribe to an SVOD service from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and/or Hulu.

Some 49 percent of those OTT TV subs have a TV antenna to view over-the-air broadcast TV, and 35 percent also have a pay TV service from a traditional MVPD.

[Read: Study: Pay TV Subs Making An OTT Connection]

Among other findings, 12 percent of adults that moved in the past year have an internet-delivered pay TV service, versus 6 percent of non-movers, and 69 percent of current OTT TV subs said they are very satisfied with their service, yet 27 percent are likely to switch from an internet-delivered pay TV service in the next six months.

Additionally, 24 percent of those without an OTT TV service are very interested in getting one, LRG said.

Representing a challenge to any OTT TV service focused on skinny bundles, the study also found that 76 percent of adults agreed that there are specific networks or programming genres that are “must haves” for the home’s TV service.

“There is clearly a growing niche market for lower-cost/lower-channel live streaming pay-TV services – particularly among younger, more mobile renters, and those living in households with more people,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement. “Currently, these Internet-delivered pay-TV services are augmenting other sources of video in home, and consumers are experimenting with the various streaming pay-TV services to discover what combinations of video offerings work best for their household.” 

This article originally appeared in Multichannel News.

LONDON--Fears among pay-TV providers about the growing trend of cord cutting are being offset by a new phenomenon in which viewers are adding OTT services on top of existing pay-TV subscriptions, even when they spend more overall.

Paywizard, a London-based subscription, billing and customer relationship management (CRM) specialist calls these subscribers, “pay-TV polygamists,” which it details in its report “Show the Love with Customer Experience.” The report adds that the cord-cutting trend can also be curtailed by providing better customer service.

The firm surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers nationwide and found that 21-percent of cord-cutter households now only subscribe to OTT services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu as their sole pay-TV package. But the research finds that twice as many—or 41-percent of households—are a growing force of “pay-TV polygamists” that subscribe to both traditional pay-TV and OTT services. And, 25 percent of those surveyed cancelled a pay-OTT service during the previous 12 months due to a poor customer experience.

[Read: Millions Flee Pay-TV; Revenues Slide, Say Researchers]

“The U.S. is the most advanced TV market in the world with high pay-TV adoption, and the research signals that there is a real opportunity for operators to prevent cord-cutting and win over new subscribers, as the figures also show consumers are willing to spend more overall on pay-TV if the customer relationships are managed effectively,” said Bhavesh Vaghela, Paywizard’s Chief Executive

The research concludes that failing to provide a consistently positive customer experience has real and serious ramifications. In fact, 30 percent of U.S. pay-TV households experienced a negative interaction or issue with at least one of their TV service providers over the previous 12 months, and 42 percent of those cancelled their service. While just 24 percent of U.S. survey respondents felt their issues were handled effectively, the remaining 76 percent felt the interaction damaged their view of the brand.

As the multisubscription customer base grows, “operators need to differentiate themselves to win and retain customers,” Vaghela said, “The key is improved interactions, guided by data-led insight at every stage of the customer journey, so that marketing is more precisely targeted, processes streamlined, recommendations better informed, and each engagement is more personalized.”

Paywizard will be at NAB Show 2018 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, booth SU10306CM. 

NEW YORK--Amplifying a growing trend, 21 percent of U.S. pay TV customers say they subscribe to an online video service from their MVPD, up from 10 percent a year ago, according to a Parks Associates study.

Parks Associates, which based the study on a survey of 10,000 heads-of broadband households in the U.S. in Q3 2017, said the rise is attributed to the increased number of partnerships between pay TV providers and OTT players, citing Comcast’s support of Netflix on the MSO’s internet-capable X1 set-top box platform as a prime example.

[Read: All ‘Major’ TV Networks To Launch OTT, Direct-To-Consumer Services By 2022: TDG]

Comcast, of course, is far from alone in this trend, as Dish Network, Altice USA as well as TiVo’s and Espial’s various cable operator partners have also woven OTT content with traditional TV. That’s also going to be a focus for Charter Communications’ new Worldbox platform.

The study, 360 View: Access and Entertainment Services in U.S. Broadband Households, also found that pay TV subscription rates dropped from 86 percent in 2015, to 77 percent in late 2017. And while 84 percent of pay TV subs get a service from a traditional cable, satellite or telco TV service provider, nearly 18 percent of pay TV homes get a package from an OTT TV provider.

“The number of ‘Cord Never’ households (which have never had pay-TV service) is increasing slowly, but those who have sampled pay TV are testing new alternatives,” Brett Sappington, senior director at Parks Associates, said in statement. “The percentage of those open to cancelling pay TV or minimizing their monthly spend on pay TV is also up. This ongoing shift is affecting all aspects of service design, promotion, packaging, and pricing. As a result, operators are having to reassess their technology and content investments as well as their partnerships and go-to-market strategy.”

This article originally appeared in TV Technology sister publication Multichannel News.