Audio Video News

Americans are “cutting the cord” on cable TV subscriptions in droves, according to a new report from Chicago/San Francisco-based management consulting firm Waterstone.

In a report outlining its findings state by state, the company wrote:

“Netflix spent $13 billion on content last year, Amazon spent $5 billion, and Hulu gave subscribers access to $30 billion of content. As for traditional cable, well, ESPN still comes with most standard packages.

“As industry analysts forecast another merciless year of cord cutting — the act of canceling cable TV in favor of streaming services and web content — our recent survey of 5,000 Americans indicates that cord cutting is well underway.”

Nearly six in ten (59%) of survey respondents have already cut the cord and another 29% are thinking about it, Waterstone said. Survey participants ranged in age from 18 to 69 years old and spanned all 50 states, although the response rates for Alaska, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming were too low to be included in the overall analysis.

Wondering where your state stands when it comes to cord cutting? The map above depicts where cord cutting is most prevalent: the darker the blue, the higher the incidence of nixing cable TV. The chart below shows the percentage of survey respondents who have cut cable in a given state.

Meanwhile, Nielsen recently reported that a growing number of Americans are getting TV over-the-air (OTA) as a way of combatting the escalating cost of cable TV and other pay-TV services. As of May 2018, 16 million U.S. homes — or more than 14% of all TV households — were receiving TV over the air, according to Nielsen. And that number continues to grow as homes swap traditional pay-TV cable and satellite services for other options. The upshot, one in seven U.S. homes are now OTA, representing an increase of almost 50% over the past eight years.