The number of households with premium streaming services in the United States grew 450-percent since 2009, according to a new digital media survey conducted by professional service network Deloitte. The gains recorded over the last nine years have been consistently gaining traction, with the same survey noting a ten-percent annual growth in 2009 and a 55-percent one last year. By most indicators, American consumers are embracing streaming services and cord-cutting in a manner that should have traditional cable giants not just worried but prompt them to fully embrace the new media formats before the omnipresence of their programming disappears, the study indicates.
The current trend shows no sign of stopping, with the 50-percent growth threshold being surpassed last year, being indicative of rapid changes in the industry. U.S. consumers presently have access to approximately 200 on-demand options for streaming video content, with that state of the market also keeping the prices of such offerings relatively low, as suggested by the survey. More than two thirds of interviewed consumers who subscribe to video streaming services said they value the fact that they can watch content whenever and without commercial, whereas nearly half of them suggested they’re also paying for such platforms due to the original programming they offer. Paid streaming services overtook their free counterparts in stateside usage for the first time ever in 2017, whereas pay TV penetration continued declining, with 40-percent of consumers without cable saying they either don’t watch enough TV to justify high-priced content bundles or can’t afford them at all. Refer to the gallery below for a visual breakdown of Deloitte’s latest findings.
The overall state of the streaming market described by the study is in line with other recent insights into the industry and suggests Internet TV isn’t just here to stay but is now being positioned to eventually replace pay TV services in their entirety. The currently ongoing trial between the Justice Department and AT&T over the telecom giant’s proposed Time Warner merger largely revolves around such predictions, with Washington arguing a combined entity would have too much content power and consequently raise prices of all TV bills in the country. AT&T repeatedly dismissed such notions, with the legal clash between the two being expected to be concluded by the end of the next month.
