That's down from a reach of 82% in 2016 and a reach of 86% in 2006, according to Leichtman Research Group.
The decline of the US pay-TV market has been obvious for years, but a new study from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has applied another number that helps to illustrate the damage: 71%.
That percentage, LRG says, now represents the current reach of pay-TV in US households, a figure that includes pay-TV service delivered via cable, satellite, telco and even Internet-based virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs).
According to LRG, that penetration percentage marks a huge decline from a reach of 82% in 2016, 87% in 2011 and 86% back in 2006.
Figure 1: 
Amid a sharp decline in pay-TV subs and the use of traditional set-top boxes, operators such as Comcast have pushed ahead with smart TV products that can be sold in and out of their traditional cable service footprints.
(Image source: Comcast)
"The percent of US TV households with a live pay-TV service significantly declined from 82% to 71% over the past five years," Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement.
LRG's 19th annual pay-TV study, based on a survey of 2,000 US households conducted in September-October 2021, also put a finer point on how pay-TV reach in the US skews heavily based on age group – it drops significantly among adults 18 to 44 years old. Some 77% of US consumers in the 45-plus age group have a pay-TV service, compared to 64% among adults in the 18to 44 group, the study found. In 2016, LRG found that 86% of consumers 45-years-old and older had pay-TV, versus 77% among those in the 18 to 44 age group.
This year's study also found that 41% of consumers who moved in the past year do not currently have a pay-TV service, and 35% of renters do not have a pay-TV service (compared to 25% among homeowners).
Fitting the ongoing TV cord-cutting trend, 30% of current pay-TV non-subs last had a pay-TV service within the past three years and 36% last had a pay-TV service more than three years ago.
Additionally, some 34% said they have never taken a pay-TV service. More than half of pay-TV non-subs that have never taken a pay-TV service are in the 18–34-year-old age range.
Amplifying the consumer trend toward streaming media players and smart TVs, just 37% of all TV sets in use have a traditional pay-TV providers' set-top box, compared to 58% in 2016.
Pay-TV operators are trying to counter that trend with apps that run on streaming media players and smart TVs. The trend also fits with Comcast's decision to activate a smart TV strategy in the US with its new XClass TV models, and in Europe with a new family of Sky Glass TV products that are being sold and distributed by Comcast-owned Sky. Vewd, meanwhile, has teamed with Vestel on an "Operator TV" strategy initially focused on Europe.
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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading
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