PwC has found that the rate of cord-cutting in the US has slowed down after surveying 1200 US consumers, and it sees OTT services now developing as add-on to traditional Pay TV, rather than as replacements.
Compared to last year, the share of US consumers expecting to still be subscribing to Pay TV in one year is up from 70% last year to 84% this time (although down from 91% in 2014).
A surprising finding is that 51% of ‘Cord trimmers’ are spending more on video now than they were a year ago, although overall 42% have increased their spending. 76% of consumers are watching more video on mobile devices than in 2015 and 60% said that the phone was the main device. Among youngsters, the numbers are higher with 70% of 18-24 year olds using their phones as the main source of video.
There is a group of those that use OTT that PwC calls “super streamers” and watch at least 12 hours of streamed content per week, and that is around 10% of all viewers. They like to binge watch and 54% say they do this, compared to 24% of consumers overall. The majority of super streamers are cord-cutters, cord nevers and cord trimmers, while 39% subscribe to traditional TV.
