Studies: How OTT viewers are changing

Cord-cutting is continuing its rise across American households. According to a new comScore report many of those cutting off cable are instead turning to services like Netflix (55%) and Hulu (52%) to get the content they're missing from cable's service. And they're using OTT products like Apple TV, Amazon's Fire Stick, Roku, and others.

by Kristina Knight

Just how many US households have cut the cable/pay TV cord? In 2018, Statista notes that 33 million US household had cut the cable TV cord and they predict that number will rise to about 39 million by the end of 2019. By 2022, Statista predicts just over 55 million US households will have cut cable's cord.

Back to comScore's data two-thirds (66%) of American households with WiFi are now using OTT services. Growth for OTT, however, has slowed from 17% in March 2018 to 7% in March 2019. Smart TV's are one area still showing significant growth at 23% YoY.

What are consumers watching rather than cable? User generated content on Youtube remains a favorite, however, Netflix holds the top spot for viewers and is watched by most (75%) of OTT households. Youtube, by comparison, has only a 55% penetration, and Amazon Video holds 44% penetration. Hulu rounds out the top 4 at 33% penetration amongst OTT households.

You can download more ComScore data here.

Just how loyal are cord-cutters? According to data out from Hub Entertainment Research, quite loyal - at least to one. Their data shows nearly half (44%) of consumers would keep Netflix if they could only keep one video subscription service. Why Netflix? Because Netflix releases the most original content - from series to movies. About two-thirds (69%) of younger viewers (aged 16-34) and about half (46%) of older viewers (those over age 35) say original content - that first seen on a service like Netflix - makes them more interested in a series or movie. Just over 40% of younger viewers associate "original" with "Netflix".

Tags: comScore, Hub Entertainment Research, OTT trends, OTT TV, Statista, TV, TV trends