Cord-Cutting Pace Slows

Consumers seem to be warming to the idea of meeting their entertainment needs through multiple sources, including both traditional pay-TV services and over-the-top streaming, according to MediaPost.

According to recent J.D. Power studies of fixed-line communications (including television service providers and internet service providers), consumers are becoming more satisfied with streaming services compared with traditional cable TV.

Those satisfaction levels, however, are not leading to a rash of cord-cutting. In fact, the percentages of consumers who say they plan to cut the cord over the next 12 months has dropped to 8% this year, from 9% in 2016.

“A large percentage of consumers are using multiple ways to view content, and they like it,” Jeff Conklin, vice president of the Technology Media and Telecommunications practice at J.D. Power, tells Marketing Daily. “There is some [cord-cutting], but what we’re finding is consumers are happy with the mix of choices they can have … It seems it’s not going to be a sea change we had heard about, at least not in the near term.”