According to a new survey, the streaming bubble is still expanding, as more people than ever are subscribing to three or more streaming services. This survey, conducted by London-based Ampere Analysis and released on Monday morning, reported that in the U.S. 39 percent of those who responded and said they have internet access say they're on the hook for payments to three or more services.
The results were current as of halfway through 2019, which indicates a 6 percent spike from that same time in 2018. As for what type of sample size we're talking here, the Ampere survey was completed by more than 22,000 people.
Additionally, since streamers like Disney+ and Apple TV+ didn't come out until after the survey wrapped up, it's possible that 39 percent could still go up (or, a year from now, we could be talking about people who subscribe to four or five services). On a similar note, also set for debuts in spring 2020 are NBCUniversal's Peacock, HBO Max, and Quibi.
So, uh, might be time to make some tough calls.
Ampere Analysis says that Europeans haven't been quite as quick to cut the cord in favor of streaming, but that residents on that continent are also becoming more and more likely to put multiple streamers on autopay. In 2018, 16 percent of Europeans were subscribed to three or more services, while that number had jumped up to 22 percent in 2019.
This, of course, represents bad news for people whose financial interests are tied to cable. At least until the streaming bubble busts.
“While cord-cutting is a major issue in the USA, it has been a less significant challenge for the industry in many international markets,”said Ampere analyst Minal Modha in a statement. “However, our research shows that consumers in many global markets are increasingly combining SVoD products with a free broadcast TV service, placing future a growth obstacle in the path of incumbent pay TV service providers.”
The Wrap reports that the surveys's results occurred simultaneously with a record number of satellite and cable TV losses in America.Which is to say this is kind of what people predicted when streaming really started blowing up.
