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Cord-cutting in the US could reach 33 million people by the end of 2018

This is even quicker than analysts were expecting.

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Image: Unsplash

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Before the end of the year, 33 million people in the United States are expected to have ditched their subscriptions to cable and satellite TV, or a rise of 32.8 percent year over year. Last year, the growth rate stood at 22 percent, according to a new forecast released by eMarketer.

What’s being described as an accelerated departure from pay TV, the results of the survey show that 187 million U.S. adults will watch content from cable, satellite or telco in 2018, which is down 3.8 percent from the year before. Satellite providers are expected to see the most significant decline followed by telco.

According to Christopher Bendten, an eMarketer senior forecasting analyst,

Most of the major traditional TV providers [Charter, Comcast, Dish, etc.] now have some way to integrate with Netflix. These partnerships are still in the early stages, so we don’t foresee them having a significant impact reducing churn this year. With more pay TV and OTT partnerships expected in the future, combined with other strategies, providers could eventually slow—but not stop—the losses.

Original programming and demand for multiple services are fueling the increased demand for over-the-top (OTT) services such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

The number of U.S. residents dropping cable is expected to grow even further over the next few years. By 2022, there could be 55.1 million cord-cutters representing over 20 percent of the population.

I’m not at all surprised by these numbers, although I would like to see a breakdown of households rather than individuals to get a more definite assessment. Regardless, it appears that people are getting increasingly tired of paying a fat cable bill each month and instead are switching OTT services.

Have you cut the cord yet? Which OTT services do you use?

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Bryan considers himself a well-rounded techie, having written articles for MakeUseOf, KnowTechie, AppAdvice, iDownload Blog. When he's not writing, he's being a single dad and rooting for his alma mater, Penn State, or cheering on the Patriots.

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