Over 1.1 Million People Cut the Cord in 2015 – 20.5% of US Households without Cable

Thinking about cutting the cord? You’re certainly not alone.

In 2015, over 1.1 million people cancelled their cable subscriptions, a massive jump from 2014 numbers, which were only 283,000, according to new research from The Convergence Consulting Group. They also expect 2016 to see a massive decrease in cable subscriptions as well, continuing this trend.

From their report:

We estimate 2015 saw a decline of 1.131 million US TV subscribers, 2014 saw a decline of 283,000, and we forecast a decline of 1.112 million TV subscribers for 2016.

As of YE2015 we estimate 24.6 million US households (20.4% of HHs) did not have a traditional TV subscription with a Cable, Satellite, or Telco TV access provider, up from 22.5 million (18.8%).

Their research also found that, despite these cancellations, that revenue for companies that provide cable subscriptions did manage to increase revenue 3% year over year, to $105 billion in 2015, with estimates that it will continue to increase in 2016 as well.

In contrast, their estimations for streaming service revenue (including CBS, HBO, Hulu, Lifetime, Netflix, Noggin, PlayStation, Seeso, Showtime, Sling, Starz, Tribeca) spiked nearly 30% in 2015 to $5.1 billion dollars, and expect another big jump in 2016 to $6.7 billion dollars.

This now brings the US total of households without cable subscription services to just over 20%. This number seems to include households who never had cable subscriptions as well, but still marks one of the largest percentages of US households without standard cable packages in recent history.

While the above numbers are of course telling of a massive shift in consumer trends when it comes to televised entertainment, the revenue numbers still growing for major cable signifies that there’s still plenty of meat on the bone. There are plenty of ways to extract more revenue out of existing subscribers, after all.

It will also be interesting to see how major cable responds, as many major companies are working on “skinny bundles” and “streaming only” packages, that could offer some benefits for those not so sure about completely abandoning their current packages. The streaming market is getting incredibly crowded, and a simple “one size fits all” option might appeal to some.

We’ll be monitoring these trends carefully in 2016, so check back for more information as the data reveals itself.

How about you? Have you cut the cord? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.