Nearly one in three Americans who cancel traditional pay TV sign up for a new streaming service within a month, and they do so at five times the normal rate, according to new data from Antenna.
In the first quarter of 2026, Paramount+ was the most common first choice for those leaving cable or satellite, attracting 13.7% of new cord-cutters. Peacock also ranked among the top destinations. Both services combine large on-demand libraries with live sports from CBS and NBC, suggesting that sports and familiar programming remain priorities even as households leave bundled TV.
Many appear willing to split those offerings across cheaper apps rather than keep a single expensive pay-TV package.Netflix, already widely adopted, is less likely to be the first new subscription after a cancellation.
Antenna also found that three of the top four — and six of the top 10 — plans chosen by recent cord-cutters are ad-free, indicating that many former pay-TV customers will pay more to avoid commercials.
The shift is not limited to lower-income households. Antenna estimates that 61% of people who canceled pay TV between January 2024 and March 2026 had household incomes under $100,000 — matching that group’s share of the overall population.
Cable operators such as Cox and Xfinity continue to lose subscribers as streaming options multiply and traditional TV prices rise. Antenna’s figures show what many of those departing customers do first: they replace the bundle quickly, often with a sports-heavy or ad-free streamer rather than another full cable-like package.