A new survey conducted by Roku finds that 32% of U.S. households do not have a traditional pay-TV service. The study said that 25% of households identified as cord shavers cut back on their pay-TV service, with 45% of cord shavers saying they’re likely to cut the cord entirely in the next six months.
Only 17% of recent cord-cutters said they would re-subscribe to traditional pay-TV in order to watch live sports when they return this year. If sports don’t return, 52% of traditional and cord-shaver households are likely to reduce their package if live sports don’t return to TV. Meanwhile, 31% said they would subscribe to a live sports streaming service.
The study points to the rise of streaming as the way more people are getting their video entertainment. “While we entered 2020 with significant momentum around cord-cutting, we’re now seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic and the pause of live sports has caused consumers to rethink how they access home entertainment and what they are willing to pay,” said Roku chief marketing officer Matthew Anderson. “It’s clear that value matters more than ever and the abundance of free content, free trials to premium streaming services, and the savings that consumers achieve are fueling the shift to streaming.”
In terms of value, most cord-cutters said that reducing entertainment expenses was their No. 1 reason for dropping pay-TV. Roku users who cut the cord said they saved about $75 a month. That number was higher than for cord-cutters who said they use other streaming devices.
Nearly half of all U.S. households said they’re watching more free ad-supported TV during the pandemic than they were before and 40% of recent cord-cutters said that free trials offered by streaming services helped convince them to drop their traditional payment services. Roku’s study was conducted by MACRO Consulting, which interviewed 7,000 Americans over 18 in March, followed by 2,000 more Americans in May.
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