Survey Finds 66 Percent of Netflix Subscribers Using Pay TV

Greater numbers of Netflix subscribers are “cutting the cord” on pay-TV providers. Surveying 829 Netflix subscribers, Cut Cable Today found that two-thirds maintain pay-TV service subscriptions -- cable or satellite. But nearly one in 10 of those (9 percent) said they intend to cancel their pay-TV subscriptions sometime over the next year. Furthermore, 16 percent said they are unsure if they will keep their pay-TV subscriptions.

Cut Cable Today is a pay-TV “cord cutting” advocacy initiative founded by a “thirty-something” family man from Texas who became fed up with paying $135 a month for a cable TV subscription. Netflix subscriber data gathered by Cut Cable Today indicates that the over-the-top (OTT) streaming video service is more in the way of a direct competitor to pay-TV rather than being complementary to it, the group highlights. That said, Cut Cable Today found that 77 percent of Netflix subscribers that maintain pay-TV subscriptions have bundled service packages that include Internet and/or phone service. According to one survey respondent: “A lot of people only retain cable or satellite because of the Internet bundle.”