Pay TV Subscriber Survey: Providers At Risk of Losing One Third of Subscriber Base

Despite their best efforts to date pay-TV providers are increasingly feeling the heat from over-the-top (OTT) competitors rolling out leaner, more personalized and less expensive on-demand video content to viewers. Nearly 8 percent (7.7) of respondents to a survey conducted by TiVo-owned Digitalsmiths for its 1Q 2015 Video Trends Report said they switched pay-TV providers in the last three months. That’s up 2 percent year-over-year (YoY). Moreover, 15.3 percent of respondents said they intend to either switch (3.1 percent), change (7.4 percent), or cut their current pay-TV service over the next six months. Nearly one-third (32.4 percent) aren’t sure about whether or not they will stay with their current provider, prompting Digitalsmiths to suggest they might need to be enticed to stay. All told, incumbent pay-TV providers may need to take immediate action to prevent nearly half (47.7 percent) of survey respondents from jumping ship, reducing viewing or cutting off their pay-TV service subscriptions.

The percentages of pay-TV subscribers surveyed who plan to switch or change providers or cancel their subscriptions are up 1.7 percent and 3.5 percent since 1Q 2013, the TiVo-owned market research provider notes. More than 4 in 10 (44 percent) of the 32.4 percent of survey respondents “on the fence” said they would stay with their pay-TV provider if it were to provide new functionality that improved the content search and discovery process. That’s up 6.6 percent from a year ago.