Is video cord-cutting for real?

Market research firms SNL Kagan and MediaBiz this week released a new report timed with The Cable Show, the national cable TV industry convention in Los Angeles, that suggests pay TV subscribership is still growing and that cable TV operators remain the dominant players in the sector.

The total U.S. multichannel video market tapped out at just under 100 million subscribers at the end of last year, the research firms said, having grown by about 3 million subscribers since the end of 2008. Further dissecting that tally, cable TV operators lost about 500,000 subscribers overall to end 2009 with 62.1 million, but the drop does not appear to directly reflect ongoing gains by satellite TV companies and telcos. The satellite firms gained about 1.4 million subscribers to reach 32.7 million total, while telco TV operators continued strong video subscriber growth with a 65% jump from 3.1 million in 2008 to 5.1 million in 2009, according to the research. Furthermore, researchers said their analysis shows that cable TV companies are still the dominant providers in the top 10 markets. The ongoing growth of pay TV and dominance of traditional cable TV providers are trends at odds with popular notions about how much video cord-cutting is really happening in the pay TV market, a contrasting opinion that no doubt will cheer attendees of The Cable Show. However, other recent research from Yankee Group suggests a rise in video cord-cutting could be imminent.