The results of a new survey were recently released by Telaria and Adobe Advertising Cloud that looked in detail at both cord cutters and those who still use traditional cable TV packages. The survey asked questions to groups of cord-cutters, those with traditional TV and also consumers who only watch video on demand and don’t pay for a service. A summary of the survey can be found at this link.

The survey asked why households keep traditional cable TV and got the following responses:

• 42% said the primary reason for keeping traditional cable TV is to watch live programming such as sports or local news.
• 55% said that the options for cord-cutting are confusing.
• 34% said they liked having a lot of channels available.
• 21% said they didn’t know where to look for alternative options to traditional cable TV.
• 55% with traditional cable TV are still satisfied with the value they get for the price they pay.
• 48% said they have considered cancelling traditional cable TV.
• 30% said they would cut the cord if they were sure they could watch all of their favorite content

Cord-cutters were asked why they had left traditional TV:

• 73% said it was due to the high cost of cable TV. 74% of cord-cutters say they are now happy with what they are paying for content.
• 30% described themselves as low users of watching content and left because they didn’t use traditional TV very much.
• 36% said they were still able to get the content they want.

There were some other interesting responses in the survey:

• 16% of respondents say they have used somebody else’s password to watch streaming content.
• 27% of homes now use a digital antenna to watch over-the-air TV, with sports being the primary reason for using the antenna.

These results are further validated by a survey released earlier this year by Deloitte who surveyed 2,088 households asking why they are keeping traditional cable TV:

• The primary reason for keeping TV, cited by 71% of households is the ability to watch live broadcasts – be that sports, local news or events like the Emmys or Oscars.
• Another primary reason is that households perceive that they are saving money due to a bundle. 56% of respondents said the bundle made them feel like they are getting a good deal.
• The third reason cited for keeping traditional cable is that households said they’ve had the service for a long time and don’t want to change.
• However, Deloitte found concern about price with 70% of respondents said they are paying too much for their cable subscriptions.

As somebody who cut the cord a number of years ago I echo some of the concerns voiced in these surveys. It can be confusing understanding the differences between the online programming options. I applaud anybody who can decipher the differences between packages offered by Sling TV, DirecTV Now and Playstation Vue. I’ve not yet found an online service that is easy to surf if you don’t have specific programming in mind. The proliferation of platforms with unique programming such as CBS All Access, Disney and others will likely make it even harder to find or afford all of the content you might want to watch. We are definitely not yet to a point where cord-cutting is as easy as keeping the traditional cable package.