Verified: Cord-Cutting Saves $$$

Verified: Cord-Cutting Saves $$

September 14, 2021

Last week, Roku released its annual streaming survey. Oh boy, was it a doozy (for traditional cable providers, anyway). According to its survey, cord-cutters spend less than half of what traditional pay-TV users do to access content. There's more to this survey as well, which we'll go over just below.

Streamer's Spotlight: Roku Finds Cord-Cutting Is the Cost-Saving Present

Roku is effectively a household name at this point. So when Roku puts out a survey on streaming and cord-cutting, people listen. In its 2021 annual survey, it led with some fairly impressive data.

1. Cord-Cutters Are Paying Less

The company's survey found that cord-cutters pay, on average, $49 per month for TV content. Comparatively, TV viewers still living in traditional pay-TV land are paying an average of $121 per month for traditional cable.

There are certainly caveats here. Unless you're a live TV streaming service like Philo, more likely than not, you're paying more than that $49 per month average for TV. But what this does speak to is the fact that most cord-cutters don't care as much about live TV content as they do on-demand content. And they're willing to purchase subscriptions to multiple streaming services to get all of the content they want.

That $49 per month equates to about 4 to 5 streaming services per user, on average. And for most people, that list more likely than not includes several of the following: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Max.

2. The Most Popular Content Is Streaming

There was a time when people stood around the water cooler talking about the newest episode of whatever show was popular. Remote work has certainly thrown that habit out the window, but we're turning to social media to do much of the same thing.

Consequently, Roku's survey found that the shows people are talking about the most are being watched on streaming services. In fact, 66% of their respondents said they're watching popularly-talked-about shows streaming services. Even most Boomers (54%) are headed to streaming services for what's popular.

3. Cord-Cutters Don't Mind Ads

If the ad-blocking industry is to be believed, people hate ads with a passion. Realistically, people accept ads if there's a benefit to getting them. In the case of streaming services, that benefit tends to be lower subscription prices.

Roku's survey found that 70% of streamers have an ad-supported streaming service, and 80% agreed that a service having both premium and free (ad-supported) tiers was a big factor to whether or not they'd sign up.

Roku's survey has several more goodies to offer. We recommend you

yourself.

This Week's Streaming Guide

1. Netflix Wants to Wow with Vacation Rentals

Imagine where you could be if you weren't stuck at home with Netflix's new show, "The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals", streaming TODAY. -

2. Discovery Plus Goes Covert this Week with 'Secrets, Lies, and Private Eyes'

"Four female-led private investigation agencies open their doors to the inner workings of their cases; missing persons, infidelities, cold cases, and fraud fill their notebooks." WatStreaming on Discovery+ this Wednesday (Sept. 15). -

3. Peacock Brings a New Dan Brown Story to Life

"A young Harvard symbologist must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy." - Watch "The Lost Symbol" on Peacock this Thursday (Sept. 16). -

4. Netflix's 'Sex Education' Returns

The Briitish coming-of-age story about awkward teens is back this week on Netflix. Stream the new season starting this Friday (Sept. 17). -

News and Industry Developments

1. Roku's First Original Film is 'Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas"

The new film launches around exactly when you think it would. -

2. Someone's Making a 'Netflix for Fake Shows'

Nestflix is a database for fake shows nested inside of real ones. -

3. FuboTV Lands Deal for Mariners and Trail Blazers Games

This is a huge win for fuboTV and sports fans alike, cutting out the traditional networks with quicker access. -

4. PlutoTV Is Getting Classic CBS Shows this Fall

In case you didn't know, PlutoTV and Paramount+ are both owned by ViacomCBS. -

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