Connected TV (CTV) advertising was a beneficiary of pandemic trends and remains one of digital advertising’s fastest-growing channels. Last year, linear TV decreased in importance to advertisers, as cord-cutting accelerated and more programmatic CTV inventory became available than ever before.

Digital video subscription fees are rising amid a cord-cutting surge, and Netflix, Disney, and YouTube are chief among those reaping the benefits.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated cord-cutting and boosted streaming video viewing.

eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Audrey Schomer discusses important considerations when advertising on YouTube, the significance of Hulu's deal with ViacomCBS, whether there's a space in streaming land for Discovery+, and what cord-cutting will look like in 2021.

But cord-cutting remains rampant

It’s no secret that cord-cutting has taken a toll on pay TV. But the impact of cord-cutting is determined by how digital cable packages are classified. Cord-Cutting Impact. Traditional pay TV categories—cable, satellite, telco—will continue to witness declining subscription revenues throughout our forecast period. Satellite will have the biggest decline in 2021, with a drop of more than $2 billion.

While pandemic-driven lockdowns may have benefited certain forms of media, the traditional pay TV industry is not one of them. In fact, cable, satellite, and telecom TV providers will lose the most subscribers ever.

How prevalent is cord-cutting in Canada? Up until this year, the number of cable subscribers opting out of their service was fairly small compared with the total number of cable households in Canada. But some estimates have cord-cutting significantly rising in 2020 as financial pressures mount. WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT?

Instead, cord-cutting unexpectedly accelerated, viewership declined by roughly 10 million, and 2020 ended up with 20 million fewer adults watching TV than we thought (landing at 204.2 million). However, those who stayed ratcheted up their time: Among US TV-watching adults, daily time spent with TV increased by a robust 9.2%, to 4 hours, 31 minutes (4:31) per day.

Many viewers, particularly cord-cutters, have migrated from traditional pay models toward broadband-only service while others have gravitated to over-the-air options.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle discuss the implications of TikTok suing the US government, smartphone use while watching TV, a potential new tech agency, Instagram's new "Suggested Posts," the status of cord-cutting, how you can tell the temperature by counting cricket chirps and more.

More people are leaving pay TV for digital alternatives, as TV networks increase their subscription costs and end promotional prices.

Despite these spikes, we do not expect ad dollars to flow back to TV at previous levels due to Mexico’s strong digital ad market and increased rates of cord-cutting.

Although linear addressable TV ad spending is growing, the TV networks and video distributors selling this inventory face a formidable challenge in the form of cord-cutters. In 2021, the number of linear addressable TV households in the US will shrink by 4.7% to fewer than 60 million.

Though vMVPD viewership isn’t rising quickly enough to counteract the effects of cord-cutting, such services do provide a digital alternative for both viewers and advertisers, and they’ll continue to be an important stopgap as cord-cutting keeps ramping up this year and into the future.

NFL programming, including the Super Bowl, is still a powerhouse for networks and advertisers, but it seems hard to believe that streaming platforms won’t have caught up to traditional TV a decade from now, particularly as cord-cutting continues apace. (We estimate that the number of US cord-cutters will increase by 15.8% this year to 73.4 million.)

The universe of traditional pay TV households (like cable and satellite) is shrinking due to a massive rise in the universe of cord-cutters and cord-nevers. By 2024, eMarketer predicts that non-pay TV households will exceed the universe of linear pay TV households for the first time.

Although linear addressable TV ad spending is growing, the TV networks and video distributors selling this inventory face a formidable challenge in the form of cord-cutters. In 2021, the number of linear addressable TV households will shrink by 4.7%, with fewer than 60 million households receiving linear addressable TV ads.

We’ve heard a lot about how the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated several marketing and media trends, such as cord cutting, online shopping and live video viewing. But we haven’t heard as much about how the pandemic is accelerating the erosion of brand loyalty. Marketing teams have been battling this problem for decades.

Fewer outdoor and social viewing parties, generally less enthusiasm for sports, and accelerated cord-cutting were all likely contributing factors—the same forces that dragged down sports viewership throughout the past year. The NFL 2020 regular season saw its average ratings fall about 10% compared with 2019; other leagues like the NBA, NHL, and MLB also reported below-average ratings.

By 2024, cord-cutters and cord-nevers will outnumber pay TV subscribers. Our pay TV figures exclude vMVPDs that deliver live TV over the internet. When vMVPDs are included with traditional pay TV packages, the impact of cord-cutting looks slightly less dire. This year, 86.1 million US households will have pay TV/vMVPD, which is a 5.9% year-over-year (YoY) decrease.

eMarketer analyst Ross Benes and forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom discuss what advertisers are doing with those sports programming dollars, how bad cord-cutting might get, the future of spending on original content, and more. They then cover how Disney+ is doing in the US and abroad, Fox Corp.'s recent purchase of Tubi and Hulu viewership growth.