Today, Comscore announced its State of Streaming Media report for 2023. In that report, they announced that 60% of American households with a connected TV have now cut the cord from cable TV and are streaming their content online as cord cutters. This is up from just 37% in May of 2023.
The report says the amount we stream is also going up as we now watch over 11.5 billion hours of streaming media in a year. That is up from 9.6B during the same period the year before. It is also reported that ad-supported streaming captured the bulk of new viewing as cord cutters look to ad-supported services to save money.
“While the top US streaming services are keeping up with the demand for subscriptions, new growth can be observed in FAST streaming platforms like Roku, Pluto and Tubi which are increasingly consolidating their position in the household mix,” said James Muldrow, Vice President, Product Management, Comscore. “At the same time, cable/satellite subscribers remain some of the most engaged users in the streaming landscape. With three cable/satellite providers in the Top 10 ranking of video services based on hours watched per household, these findings highlight the success of these providers in offering advertisers consistently engaged streaming audiences.”
Cord cutting was once seen as no big threat to cable TV giants like Comcast and Spectrum but now has grown. Now, cord cutting has become the driving force in media as cable TV’s market share continues to shrink.
Some other interesting findings from this report:
- Digital video is accelerating its growth: Hours watched on connected devices have risen 20% year-over-year with 81% of WiFi households now streaming on CTV.
- US households are adopting ad-supported streaming services at a faster rate: CTV households streaming ad-supported streaming services reached 83.7M, a 17% increase (from 2021-2023), while households streaming non-ad-supported services reached 81.1M, a 9% increase.
- Consumption of Targeted programming on FAST/Advertising-based Video on Demand services is accelerating: Hispanic households consume nearly twice as many hours of FAST content, increasing 81% year-on-year.
- Linear programming is evolving within the digital landscape: On the measure of content performance, 3 linear streaming providers are included in the Top 10 video services (MVPD streaming) on hours viewed per HH.
- Cord Cutters have eclipsed traditional TV subscribers: As of May 2023, 60% of CTV households are now cordless, compared to just 37% in May 2019.
- Smart TVs are the dominant force for CTV streaming: Total households that stream content via Smart TVs increased 23% from May 2021, followed by gaming consoles at 18%.