Most Internet Users Say Pay TV Is Too Expensive - eMarketer
« Return to Mobile Website

Newsletters Sign-Up

Schedule a Demo

Does My Company Subscribe?

Request Pricing

Most Internet Users Say Pay TV Is Too Expensive

Pay TV subscriptions have declined

February 18, 2016 | Media & Entertainment

More than three-quarters of US internet users subscribe to pay TV, according to December 2015 research. Still, many find the services to be too expensive.

US Internet Users Who Believe that Pay TV Services Are Too Expensive, Dec 2015 (% of respondents)

TVfreedom and The Harris Poll surveyed 2,047 US adults and discovered that 61% of respondents strongly agreed that pay TV services are too expensive. With another quarter of internet users somewhat agreeing, a whopping 86% believed on some level that pay TV was too pricy.

Just 4% of respondents said they strongly disagreed and 6% said they didn’t know.

According to the study, respondents felt that they should not need a bundled telephone, internet and television service to get the lowest price on these services. Internet users also said they pay too much for their DVR and cable box rental fees, and that pay TV providers should be required to make fees easy to understand.

US Pay TV Subscribers and Net Additions, by Provider, Q2 2015

It’s likely that because of these frustrations, pay TV subscribers continue to turn off their subscriptions. According to Leichtman Research Group Inc. (LRG), the 13 largest pay TV providers in the US, which account for approximately 95% of the market, saw a net loss of 470,855 subscribers in Q2 2015—the worst quarterly drop ever.

Overall, US pay TV subscriptions to the providers studied totaled 94.9 million in Q2 2015.

Go beyond the articles

Corporate subscribers get quick and easy access to the exact data and analysis they need to make critical business decisions:

  • Go beyond the articles:

    coverage
    eMarketer Products

    You've never experienced research like this.

    SEE FEATURES »

  • Hear from our clients:

    coverage
    Customer Stories

    Nearly all Fortune 500 companies rely on us.

    READ MORE »

  • Want to learn more?

    coverage
    Contact Us

    Inquire about corporate subscriptions today.

    CONTACT SALES »
$(document).ready(function(){ $("[id*='linkPrevious']").click(function() { eMarketer.Site.Analytics(window.location.pathname).link(true, "Article-PreviousArticle"); }); $("[id*='linkNext']").click(function() { eMarketer.Site.Analytics(window.location.pathname).link(true, "Article-NextArticle"); }); function getParameterByName(e,n){n||(n=window.location.href),e=e.replace(/[\[\]]/g,"\\$&");var r=new RegExp("[?&]"+e+"(=([^&#]*)|&|#|$)"),a=r.exec(n);return a?a[2]?decodeURIComponent(a[2].replace(/\+/g," ")):"":null} var ecid = getParameterByName("ecid") if(ecid) { eMarketer.Site.Analytics('Article').addEventOnce(eMarketer.Site.Analytics.Events.ArticleViewFromSpecificNewsletter).link(true, 'ArticleViewFromSpecificNewsletter-' + ecid) } });