20 DEC 2022

How many US households choose not to own a TV set?

More than 5% of US households do not have a television set, although 80% of them do have broadband, and more than 50% watch on their devices, according to a new study from the Advertising Research Foundation.

20 DEC 2022

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More than 5% of US households do not have a television set, but it is not because most of them are “off the grid.” Far from it: 80% of these households have broadband, and more than 50% watch on their devices, according to a new study from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).

This ascendant dynamic is driven by young adults (18-34) in one person households, who are twice as likely as older viewers not to own a television. Reception mode follows suit: 50% of TV set-less households are digital only (streaming), as opposed to just 14% of households with TV sets. In light of these trends, the Advertising Research Foundation is advocating for a gradual migration away from the concept of “television households,” which has historically represented households with at least one TV set, to “TV-accessible households,” as the basis of television measurement.

Furthermore, the study revealed that broadband only (BBO) homes grew from 25% in Summer 2021 to 30% in Spring 2022 among TV accessible households, including those without a TV set. The corresponding BBO penetration figures in TV (set) households were 22% and 26%. Over the same period, pay TV households declined from 61% to 57%.

Broadband Only households can get linear television through virtual MVPDs (vMVPDs), like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live, so many in the industry want the rating services to treat vMVPDs as just another form of pay TV (like cable, satellite and fiber services). Data shows that adding vMVPDs would raise the pay universe to 67% and lower BBO to 20% among all TV accessible households. Some in the industry represent this 20% to be the entire BBO universe, while others include households with vMVPDs in BBO.

The report also notes that TV sets are increasingly “unequal access”: only 21% of pay TV households have a set top box on every TV. The rest have at least one TV that accesses a different programming menu. For example, a third of pay TV households have broadband connected to at least one TV, and 5% have an antenna on at least one set. Moreover, almost half of the pay TV households with broadband (14% of 33%) have YouTube TV on at least one television, which gives those households access to two modes of linear viewing.