Cord-Cutting Accelerating as MVPDs Fall Into 'Skinny Bundle Trap,' TDG Says

Cord-cutting is accelerating, with more than half of cord-cutters canceling legacy pay-TV service in 2015 and 2016 -- a third of them in 2016 alone, The Diffusion Group (TDG) said in a news release Thursday: That acceleration is due to higher pay-TV pricing and the rise of on-demand services, it said, saying the trend is compounded by a growing number of virtual MVPDs that somewhat mirror legacy MVPDs but are also somewhat customized. TDG said most legacy operators -- Comcast a key exception -- "are rushing into the skinny-bundle trap" by offering cheaper offerings that are in turn accelerating the decline of the traditional bundle. It said legacy operators need either to "resign themselves to being a 'dumb-pipe' provider" or to invest in IP with the aim of becoming "the go-to source for all things video" -- a direction Comcast is turning.