Executive Summary

In the digital video industry, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated existing trends. Viewers were already leaving pay TV for streaming alternatives, but the pace has increased.

What’s the latest on cord-cutting?

The number of US pay TV households will decline 7.5% to 77.6 million this year. The non-pay TV household total, which combines cord-cutters and cord-nevers, will reach 51.7 million.

What are the most popular connected TV operating systems?

Roku and Amazon Fire TV are the most popular, with 100.2 million and 72.7 million users, respectively.

How has the pandemic affected streaming video?

More people are testing subscription video services. We raised our US subscription OTT video viewership estimate from 192.7 million to 207.5 million. We now expect there to be 222.0 million subscription OTT viewers by 2024, up from our previous estimate of 210.4 million.

Which new subscription video service is off to the best start?

Disney+ has quickly added users since its launch in late 2019. It will have 72.4 million US monthly viewers and make up 34.9% of all subscription OTT viewers.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report includes our updated forecasts for US pay TV, cord-cutting, connected TV, and OTT viewers.

KEY STAT: In August, we raised our 2020 US subscription OTT viewers forecast from 192.7 million to 207.5 million.