The number of consumers shelling out money for traditional pay TV subscriptions is falling with only 60% of U.S. households holding on to their subscription in 2021. New data from Digital TV Research shows that pay TV penetration will fall below 50% of all U.S. households by the year 2026. By comparison, traditional cable subscriptions held a grip on 91% of households back in 2010.
Thanks to cord cutting, households without cable subscriptions will rise 72.86 million in 2027, up from just 11.34 million in 2010.
The research forecasts just 60 million pay TV subscribers by 2027, down from its peak year of 2010 with 105 million subscribers. Pay TV saw a rapid decline in subscribers, losing 6 million each year from 2019-2021, although that pace is predicted to slow down.