Cord Cutting, SVOD Growth May Be Slowing, TiVo Says

The cord-cutting trend took a slight dip in Q3, with 20 percent of respondents ending pay-TV service in the past 12 months -- the first dip since Q3 2016 in what were upward-trending numbers, TiVo reported. Churn was down, with 7.5 percent of survey respondents switching pay-TV providers in the past three months -- the lowest since Q2 2014. The media tech company said Wednesday 82 percent say they want to pay only for the channels they watch, the highest in the survey's history. It said consumers indicated they're willing to pay on average $1.42 per channel per month for self-selected channel packages, with 22 channels on average ideal. TiVo said the most in-demand channels for that package would include HBO, Revolt, Cinemax, AXS TV, Starz and Telemundo. It said 91 percent watch live TV daily, up 5.2 percentage points year over year, while 67 percent watch previously recorded or DVR'd content daily and 62 percent over-the-top or streaming content daily. Some 65 percent use a monthly subscription VOD service, but recent quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year SVOD growth is slowing -- raising questions of whether the market is saturating or whether skinny bundle virtual MVPD services will again accelerate growth. The survey of 3,013 U.S. and Canadian adults was done in Q3 by a third-party survey service, TiVo said.