Television Cord Cutters, 2016-2021 [CHART]

Chart: Television Cord Cutters - 2016-2021

Consumers shifting their attention to OTT digital video platforms in place of pay TV options—known as “cord-cutters”—is a key reason for anemic growth in TV ad spending. eMarketer has increased its estimates for cord-cutters substantially for 2017 through 2021. In fact, by 2021, the number of cord-cutters will nearly equal the number of people who have never had pay TV (“cord-nevers”).

This year, there will be 22.2 million cord-cutters ages 18 and older, a figure up 33.2% over 2016. The overall tally is much higher than the 15.4 million eMarketer previously predicted. Meanwhile, the number of US adult cord-nevers will grow 5.8% this year to 34.4 million.

“Younger audiences continue to switch to either exclusively watching OTT video or watching them in combination with free TV options,” said Chris Bendtsen, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. “Last year, even the Olympics and presidential elections could not prevent younger audiences from abandoning pay TV.” Read the rest at eMarketer.