About 27% of Pay-TV Customers Also Subscribe To Netflix: Study

More than a quarter of all U.S. subscribers to cable, satellite or telco TV services (27%) also are Netflix members, representing an incremental "cord throttling" threat to traditional providers from over-the-top video, according to a study by research firm NPD Group.

Almost half of pay-TV subscribers -- 46% -- also pay extra for premium movie channels or sports tiers, and 24% watched movies via both paid and free video-on-demand from their providers. On VOD usage, Comcast leads the industry with 41% of subscribers using video-on-demand, followed by Verizon's FiOS TV at 38% and Time Warner Cable at 20%. At the same time, those customers are also increasingly watching TV programming and movies from other sources, including Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, according to NPD senior vice president and entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick. Overall, 10% of pay-TV subscribers streamed movies for free, and the same percentage streamed TV programs for free, with the networks themselves the most popular sources for free online TV viewing.