Americans Cutting the Cable TV Cord at Increasing Pace

A growing percentage of American households are cutting the cable TV cord each year, according to eMarketer’s first forecast for the pay TV market.

In 2015, 4.9 million US households will unsubscribe from traditional pay TV services, a jump of 10.9% over last year. And that growth will accelerate in the coming years, with the number of incremental cord-cutting households jumping another 12.5% in 2016. In fact, by the end of next year, the number of US households subscribing to cable and satellite will drop below 100 million.

“This year, the number of digital video services expanded at a faster pace than ever before,” said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna. “In addition to standalone offerings from the likes of HBO, there are new digital bundles that include many of the channels consumers could only have received with cable and satellite subscriptions in the past. This widespread availability of digital content makes cord-cutting a viable option for a growing segment of the viewing population.”

Cable and satellite providers will steadily lose customers through 2019. The number of US households subscribing to cable TV will drop 0.4% this year, while the number of US households subscribing to satellite TV will drop 1.5%. Conversely, more American households will subscribe to TV packages provided by telecom providers such as Verizon and AT&T. That segment will jump 1.8% this year.