Industry Voices Mulligan: SVOD users were the driving force behind cord cutting in Q3

Cord cutting is now a firmly entrenched component of the pay TV business, especially in the U.S. Pay TV providers of all kinds continue to shed subscribers each quarter, all against the backdrop of a continually expanding streaming market. However, the real story behind cord cutting is not how many people are doing it but who is doing it. In this column, we highlight findings from MIDiA’s Q3 Cord Cutting report, deep diving into cord cutting both from a supply and a demand side, profiling cord cutters and identifying which streaming apps are having the most impact.The third quarter of 2018 witnessed an acceleration in U.S. cord cutting compared to previous quarters, reaching its highest level since the second quarter of 2016. A net total of 1 million U.S. pay TV subscribers cancelled their subscriptions in the third quarter. This is a secular trend and a growing one, with 1.7 million subscribers lost already this year, compared to 1.3 million at this stage in 2017. However, cord cutting is a symptom, not a cause; it is the effect of traditional pay TV subscribers jumping ship to streaming alternatives.