When cord cutting started to grow, many cable executives had assumed that most cord cutters would pay for a live TV streaming service like YouTube TV, Hulu, or Fubo. However, increasingly, in 2024 most cord cutters do not.
This trend is not new as in 2023, 6.9 million American households canceled cable and satellite TV. Some of the heaviest hit TV companies include Comcast, which lost over 2 million subscribers; Spectrum, which lost over 1 million; DIRECTV, which lost 1.8 million; and DISH, which lost 945,000, according to the Leichtman Research Group.
YouTube TV, Hulu, Sling TV, and Fubo combined only added 1,894,000 subscribers in 2023. Most of that came from YouTube TV, adding 1.9 million subscribers. Hulu added 100,000 live TV customers, and Fubo added 173,000 subscribers in 2023. At the same time Sling TV lost 279,000 subscribers.
A new survey of more than 500 Cord Cutters News readers shows that about half of them do not subscribe to a live TV service. With many saying they are newer cord cutters looking for help seeing only half of them pick a live TV service is a major red flag for cable TV.
Increasingly cord cutters are moving primarily to on-demand services like Disney+, Netflix, or Max. According to past surveys of our readers many start with a live TV streaming service only to later move to on-demand only options.
Now with Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery launching a sports-only live TV service it raises real questions about the future of some of these streaming services.
No matter what is happening for millions of Americans how they watch TV is changing in 2024.
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