Future of TV Briefing: Where have all the cord-cutters gone?

By Tim Peterson  •  September 9, 2026  •

Ivy Liu

Consider cord-lowering? OK, dull question; it’s quiet a thing. But the plot that it’s taking place now underscores how other folks would be eliminating their cable boxes nevertheless they’re now not exactly eliminating cable TV.

First, let’s detect on the most up-to-date rate of cord-lowering. The different of members lowering the cord is quiet growing, though a majority of U.S. households quiet have get entry to to outmoded TV. Bigger than 30% of U.S. households are streaming-only households, based totally on the Promoting Compare Foundation’s DASH TV Universe gaze.

More to the purpose, the rate of cord-lowering is easing unbiased a little and in a excellent-trying telling plot, in accordance with the most up-to-date quarterly earnings document from primary U.S. pay-TV suppliers.

• Structure lost 21,000 subscribers within the 2d quarter of 2026, vs. an absence of 80,000 a 365 days within the past.
• Comcast lost 280,000 subscribers, vs. an absence of 325,000 a 365 days within the past.
• EchoStar lost 241,000 subscribers, vs. an absence of 261,000 a 365 days within the past.

Accurate thru the three corporations, while the pay-TV subscriber losses have continued, they’ve decelerated. No doubt, within the case of Structure, they’ve if truth be told decelerated. Why? Properly, because Structure has been bundling primary streaming services bask in ESPN Limitless, Fox One, Paramount+ and Peacock into its pay-TV subscriptions. Which capacity, it’ll also additionally be extra price-effective to exact pay for outmoded TV than to lessen the cord and pay for the streamers a la carte. 

As Structure stated in its quarterly earnings announcement, that cord-lowering deceleration used to be “pushed by simplified pricing and packaging and advantages from the inclusion of programmers’ streaming applications in Spectrum’s expanded frequent video applications.”

The streaming services that cord-cutters be half of straight away after canceling cable is also telling. To be definite, most of them – 72% – already subscribe to about a streaming services, nevertheless 31% of cord-cutters be half of a brand unique streaming service within the most important month after canceling their outmoded pay-TV subscriptions, based totally on research company Antenna.

Paramount+’s top class tier being the largest winner of cord-cutters could also owe to cord cutters now not wanting outmoded pay-TV subscriptions nevertheless quiet wanting outmoded pay-TV programming, bask in CBS’s are living sports publicizes, which could be readily available on the streamer’s top class tier. That could also wait on to point to NBCUniversal’s Peacock top class tier – which carries “Sunday Night time Soccer,” the NBA, Olympics, etc. – ranking third. Netflix taking the 2d, fourth and fifth slots appears exact a characteristic of Netflix being Netflix.

But perchance the largest expose that cord-cutters aren’t lowering themselves off from outmoded TV is the fragment of them that also get outmoded TV in some construct. In accordance with S&P World Market Intelligence Kagan, 47% of cord-cutters or cord-nevers – other folks that never paid for outmoded TV within the most important place – have streaming pay-TV subscriptions, while 20% quiet get broadcast TV thru free over-the-air indicators.

What we’ve heard

“They exact don’t desire the effort of the usage rights dialog.”

— Begin Influence’s Aundrea Leckie on manufacturers inquiring for perpetual usage rights from creators

Numbers to clutch

18%: Proportion amplify within the different of minutes of commercials aired per hour on primary streaming services this 365 days.

2014: The 365 days that Amelia Dimoldenberg premiered “Chicken Shop Date,” her YouTube repeat that can dwell after its upcoming season.

40%: How noteworthy higher YouTube’s unique public viewcounts are when put next to the outdated version after the platform diminished the brink for counting a scrutinize.

6: Quantity of NHL groups that can trip native video games exclusively by scheme of Amazon Top Video.

What we’ve covered

Lend a hand-to-college brand spending on TikTok rises:

• Advertisers bumped up their TikTok spending 20-40% over the summer months as they labored to tempt patrons to open up wallets at some stage within the annual abet-to-college gross sales length.
• TikTok’s fragment of total social spending by Tinuiti purchasers increased 55% between July and August.

Learn extra about advertisers’ abet-to-college TikTok spending right here.

Brands desire creators who can in finding over other folks and machines honest now:

• With Reign Maker, AI visibility has been the most important or 2d thing raised with each and each consumer for six months straight running.
• Ogilvy is extra along with some accounts: a handful of its extra superior purchasers are already surroundings squawk KPIs around discoverability, credibility and culture, fairly than ready to jog trying how the dialog performs out.

Learn extra about creators’ affect on manufacturers’ AI visibility right here.

Entrepreneurs direct usage rights are riding up the designate to work with creators:

• Usage rights have change into a primary segment of every and each creator partnership, dictating how the speak shall be outmoded, where this can seem (within the community or globally), and the scheme prolonged it’ll also additionally be outmoded.
• Aundrea Leckie, director of account administration at creator advertising and marketing firm Begin Influence, stated she’s finding extra manufacturers these days are trying to get usage rights in perpetuity, something she believes isn’t advantageous for them.

Learn extra about creator usage rights right here.

Why manufacturers are turning to older creators for authenticity AI can’t false:

• Elder millennial and Gen X creators raise mortgages, burnout, parenting, successfully being scares, and mid-profession pivots into their feeds: exact-life problems which could be now not easy to false and increasingly extra treasured to manufacturers purchasing for credibility with older, higher-spending audiences.
• The developments for elder creators mirror a broader jog against longer-timeframe partnerships over one-off campaigns, and a renewed point of interest on grounded storytelling that builds neighborhood and drives engagement.

Learn extra about manufacturers’ interest in older creators right here.

What we’re finding out

The unique ‘60 Minutes’:

This coming Sunday marks the premiere of a brand unique-detect “60 Minutes” beneath CBS Facts chief Bari Weiss and unique producer Cut Bilton, replete with “dozens of runt changes” which could be supposed to modernize the a long time-former repeat, based totally on The Unique York Cases.

MrBeast’s diversifying media firm:

The inform for creators bask in Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson which could be building media corporations around themselves is that their corporations can now not be overly reliant on their founding creators, which is why Beast Industries is trying to diversify its enterprise past its centrifugal creator, based totally on Enterprise Insider.