In 2023, cord cutting grew faster than ever, and the battle to be the service everyone subscribes to was heating up. Now, in 2024, cord cutting is continuing to grow as more Americans ditch cable TV for less expensive streaming options, and the fate of live TV streaming is becoming clearer.
According to our Spring 2024 survey of more than 1,000 Cord Cutters News readers, YouTube TV dominates the live TV streaming arena with 31% of readers subscribing to YouTube TV. In second place was Sling TV with 8.4% of cord cutters subscribing to their skinny bundle of channels.
YouTube TV, according to our survey, has more subscribers than Sling TV, Hulu, Philo, and Frndly TV combined.
Here is a breakdown of the live TV streaming services results according to our readers.
- YouTube TV 27.4%
- Sling TV 8.7%
- Hulu with Live TV 7.5%
- Philo 6.5%
- DIRECTV STREAM 5.6%
- Frndly 2.9%
- Fubo 2.9%
Clearly, YouTube TV is connecting with cord cutters in a way that is helping it stand out. Yet many cord cutters do not subscribe to a live TV streaming service. According to our survey, 41.7% of our readers do not pay for one, which is a slight increase compared to the same period in the fall 2023. This lines up with what the Leichtman Research Group found: almost 7 million Americans canceled a satellite or cable TV service in 2023 but only 1.9 million switched to a live TV streaming service.
Of that number of new subscribers to a live TV streaming service, the majority picked YouTube TV. YouTube TV added 1.9 million subscribers in 2023. Hulu + Live TV added 100,000 and Fubo only added 173,000 subscribers. Sling TV lost subscribers in 2023.
Viewers who are not sports fans are discovering that they don’t need a live TV streaming service. As more networks put their content into on-demand services like Disney+ and Paramount+, viewers are finding on-demand fits their lifestyle and preferences.
Have you gone on-demand only? Let us know why or why you picked a particular service for your live TV streaming.
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