Numerous TV Watchers Are 'Show Dumping,' TiVo Survey Finds

Sizable numbers of TV watchers are "show dumping," giving up on series because of the difficulty or cost of accessing them, TiVo said. Pointing to a sponsored survey of pay-TV and over-the-top subscribers in the U.S., Asia and Europe, a news release Friday said 37 percent show dumped -- most often premium pay-TV programming, shows available only through paid OTT and/or unavailable on OTT services that aggregate content. Those surveyed average four hours daily streaming or watching video content and 19 minutes searching, with the U.S average being more than 5.5 hours a day, TiVo said. It said 11 percent of those surveyed indicated they were extremely likely to downgrade their pay-TV service, with another 8 percent indicating high likelihood of canceling their pay-TV service in the next six months. TiVo said cord shaving is more predominant in the U.S, where 21 percent of those surveyed said they're extremely likely to downgrade their pay-TV service and 13 percent said they're strongly considering cutting the cord. Fifty-eight percent have more than one subscription streaming video service and 45 percent have more than one streaming media device at home. Of those who subscribe to streaming services, TiVo said, 81 percent in the U.S. report having Netflix, and 50 percent of U.S. respondents subscribe to Amazon Prime. More than 47 percent of all respondents want better programming search functionality, with 40 percent saying they turn off the TV or device when they can't find something to watch. Among millennials, 53 percent say they often expect recommendations on what else to watch, versus 14 percent of boomers and 36 percent of Gen Xers. The results were from an online survey of 5,500 pay-TV and OTT subscribers across seven countries, with 2,500 of them done in the U.S.