‘Rope cutting’ is on the rise in the US and Europe

Consumers are increasingly abandoning traditional cable and satellite services in favor of cord-cutting, streaming services in the US and Europe.

In the United States, nearly 70% of households are expected to abandon traditional television services in favor of streaming services by 2024.¹. By 2023, 95.1 million people will cancel traditional television services, which is 35.9% of the US population.². That same year, for the first time, more households will switch to streaming than traditional pay-TV.³.

The trend is similar in Europe, although the demographics are slightly different. In European countries, mainly older people are canceling traditional TV services; More than half of cord cutters in the UK and almost half in Germany and France are aged 45 or over.⁴.

The reasons for this change are manifold. The main drivers are the rising costs of traditional cable and satellite services, the flexibility and ease of use of streaming services, and the increasing availability of broadband internet that makes streaming services more accessible.

Looking ahead, the cord-cutting trend is expected to continue as streaming services continue to grow in popularity and variety, and broadband Internet technology continues to improve. Although the annual increase in the number of cord cutters in the United States is slowing, the trend is not expected to slow down anytime soon⁵. There is still steady growth in the number of cord cutters in Europe, although less detailed forecasts are currently available for the European market.