How many people are actually cutting the cord on their cable service?
PaidContent says that according to Nielsen's executive VP, Cheryl Idell, only 6% of broadband users have discontinued cable television service in the US and moved to internet-based television. That number hasn't increased in the last year, leading Idell to wonder if it will happen at all.
However, research firm SNL Kagan estimates US cable operators lost 741,000 basic video customers in Q3, the single largest quarterly dip since SNL Kagan began compiling data in 1980.
Given those numbers, it's hard to dismiss the impact of over-the-top substitution on video subscriber performance.