Cord-cutting

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reducing the number of hours of subscription TV viewed in response to competition from rival media available over the Internet. This content is either free or significantly cheaper than the same content provided via cable.

As a market trend, a growing number of "cord cutters" do not pay for subscription television in favor of some combination of broadband Internet and IPTV, digital video recorders, digital terrestrial television and/or free-to-air satellite television^[1] broadcasts. A related group, the cord-nevers, have never used commercial cable for television service, relying on internet sources from the start. A number of purely internet television services, part of the wider IPTV concept, have emerged to cater to these groups.

In the third and fourth quarters of 2018, 1.1 million subscribers in the United States left traditional satellite and cable in favor of internet based streaming television.^[2][3][4][5] This decline continued into the first quarter of 2019 as cable and satellite lost 1.4 million subscribers.^[6] This trend is occurring globally as cord-cutting varies between 7% and 15% of households across multiple countries in Europe and Asia.^[7]

A 2021 study found that cord-cutter households "increase internet usage by 22%, reduce payments to multiple-system operators by 50%, and 16% acquire new over-the-top (OTT) video subscriptions."^[8]