http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/cord-cutting-nielsen-1201478391/
Nielsen Casts Doubt on ‘Cord Cutting’ Trend
The people who keep tabs on TV viewership are throwing cold water on the idea
that younger consumers are abandoning cable and satellite TV.
In a press briefing held Thursday, executives from Nielsen suggested cable
subscribers who also have a subscription-video-on-demand service are more
likely to drop the SVOD than they are cable. In fact, according to Nielsen
data, 93% of homes who had both services were more likely to keep the cable and
instead drop broadband or SVOD offerings, said Glenn Enoch, senior VP of
audience insights for the measurement and data service.
“Cable may have a little more staying power than it’s actually being given
credit for recently,” said Enoch.
He suggested that a younger U.S. population is increasingly mobile and prone to
add and drop cable service as it moves to new locations. Nielsen has noticed a
“seasonal” shift in cable-subscriber churn, with more of it taking place in the
fourth and first quarters of the year, but less of it in the second and third
quarters.
Recent cable-company results might not provide complete support for that
theory. Comcast disclosed in its fourth-quarter earnings results, for example,
that it added fewer video customers in that fiscal period – just 6,000 –
compared with 46,000 in the year-earlier period. Consumers with cable may not
be dropping it, but those that don’t have it yet may not be adding it.
Nielsen executives suggested the company would have more to say about “cord
cutting” in weeks to come.