Share of TV Households With Pay-TV Service Falls Below 80%, Says LRG Report
The percentage of U.S. TV households that subscribe to a pay-TV service fell again in 2017 to 79 percent, from 84 percent in 2014, 88 percent in 2010 and 81 percent in 2004, said a Leichtman Research Group report Tuesday.…
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The decline in pay-TV penetration isn’t only about recent disconnects, said President Bruce Leichtman. Among nonsubscribers, “about one-third subscribed in the past three years, one-third subscribed over three years ago, and one-third never subscribed," he said. Twenty-nine percent of TV households with annual incomes under $50,000 don’t subscribe to a pay-TV service vs. 16 percent with incomes above $50,000, said the report, and 30 percent of consumers that moved in the past year don’t currently subscribe to a pay-TV service, a higher level than in previous years. Thirty-nine percent of one-TV households are nonsubscribers vs. 24 percent of two-TV households and 12 percent with three or more TVs, it said. Ten percent of respondents in the August telephone survey of 1,201 adults age 18 and older planned to subscribe to a pay-TV service in the next six months, including 7 percent who never subscribed.