Last month Cord Cutters News surveyed more than 1,000 of our readers about how they cut the cord. From the summer 2024 survey, Roku is the clear leader in the world of cord cutting and is far ahead of other popular streaming players including the Fire TV, Apple TV, and Google TV.
So, the question now is will cord cutters be upgrading or buying a new Roko, Fire TV, Google TV, or Apple TV? We asked our readers what streaming device they were most likely to buy next and 8.7% said a Roku. In second place with 3.7% of the vote was the Google TV. Fire TV came in third at 3% and Apple TV had 1.8%.
What stands out from this report is that 80.9% of readers said they did not plan to buy a new streaming player. The number of cord cutters saying they don’t plan to buy a new streaming player has slowly grown since we started asking the question in 2017 when 62.8% said they didn’t plan to buy a new streaming player. This number is also up from our spring 2024 survey when 73.3% of our readers said they wouldn’t buy a new streaming player.
These numbers are like what we see from our readers when we ask them what devices they currently own. In our survey, we also asked our readers to list all the devices they use to stream their content. (Adding the numbers up won’t add up to 100%, as many people use multiple types of devices.) According to our readers, 64% use a Roku, 38% of our readers use a smart TV, and 34% use a Fire TV.
What may be most worrisome for Roku and Amazon is that more than 70% of our readers see no reason to upgrade to a new streaming player. As cord cutting matures for many cord cutters what they have now is good enough for them, and they are not rushing out to buy the newest streaming player on the market.
The other main issue is that a growing number of cord cutters use smart TVs. These higher cost TVs are not something many Americans are willing to upgrade until it becomes a necessity.
Cord cutters also tell us they fail to see a need to upgrade right now as their streaming player does everything they need it to do.
Cord cutting device makers and service providers may be about to run into the same issue smartphone makers are facing. Recently, we have seen iPhone sales drop as Americans stop seeing the need to get a new iPhone every year. For many Americans, they are happy with their iPhone and will keep using it until it breaks. The same seems to be happening for streaming players, as Americans seem perfectly happy with what they have now, and a slight speed improvement is not enough to get them to hand over their cash for a new one.
This could spell trouble for major companies that have become used to cord cutters upgrading to the newest streaming players. Now, they will need to focus on other areas if they want to continue to see growth.
We have already seen Amazon and Roku both shift into ad-supported free streaming services in recent years. This move is likely, in part, an effort to diversify their streaming business away from focusing on selling new players. Instead, they are focusing on earning revenue from the devices they have already sold.