Additionally, we have increased our estimates for non-pay TV households—which combine cord-cutters and -nevers—from 48.9 million to 51.7 million.
The pandemic increased pay TV losses because it tightened consumers’ wallets and caused the cancellation of live sporting events, which are one of the main draws of cable and satellite operators. Pay TV providers have also cut back on some of their promotional pricing to sustain profitability. But as prices increased, so did cord-cutting.
When vMVPDs are included with traditional pay TV packages, the impact of cord-cutting looks slightly less dire. This year, 86.1 million US households will have pay TV/vMVPD, a 5.9% year-over-year decrease. Two-thirds of US households will have pay TV/vMVPD. When analyzed this way, the number of cord-cutters and -nevers combined will not surpass the number of pay TV/vMVPD viewers during our forecast period. However, their paths are converging, and most of the customers leaving traditional TV are not replacing it with vMVPDs.