COSTA MESA, CA – While pay-TV subscribers in the U.S. are increasingly satisfied with over-the-top streaming TV services, they are also watching more scheduled television programming than they did two years ago, according to new data from J.D. Power.
In a typical week, U.S. households have spent an average of 17.4 hours watching regularly scheduled programming this year, up from 16.6 hours in 2015. In addition, the percentage of customers who say that they plan to cut the cord on pay-TV during the next 12 months has declined to 8% this year from 9% in 2016.
“Although it seems like the world is consumed with the idea of cord-cutting in the wake of Hulu’s first Emmy and the proliferation of new shows on Netflix and Amazon, the number of current pay-TV customers who plan to cut the cord has actually declined, and the number of hours spent watching old-fashioned, time-slot television is growing,” said Peter Cunningham, J.D. Power's technology, media, and telecommunications practice lead, in the news release. “We’re seeing a trend toward the co-existence of traditional and alternative service providers, with each offering some lessons to the other on how best to drive an increase in customer satisfaction.”
Other key findings include:
– Customer satisfaction with the overall streaming video service experience (7.91 on a 10-point scale) and performance and reliability (7.97) has slightly improved year over year. Conversely, overall satisfaction with traditional pay-TV services has fallen to 710 this year (on a 1,000-point scale) from 724 last year.
– Nearly two-thirds (65%) of pay-TV customers say they never watch content from their provider via mobile app, and only 6% say they watch via mobile on a daily basis. However, overall satisfaction with pay-TV providers increases as the frequency that customers use a mobile app to watch their provider’s content increases.
J.D. Power’s annual U.S. wireline studies, now in their 16th year, evaluate residential customers’ experiences with TV, internet and phone services in four geographical regions: East, South, North Central and West. Click here for more.
