A related group, the cord-nevers, have never used commercial cable for television service, relying on internet sources from the start.
A number of purely internet television services, part of the wider IPTV concept, have emerged to cater to these groups.
In the third and fourth quarters of 2018, 1.1 million subscribers in the United States left traditional satellite and cable in favor of internet based streaming television.
[8] A 2021 study found that cord-cutter households "increase internet usage by 22%, reduce payments to multiple-system operators by 50%, and 16% acquire new over-the-top (OTT) video subscriptions.
Sports programming was a big reason for not cancelling pay television service, although online options existed for many events.
Craig Moffett of Sanford C. Bernstein still stated that high prices and other methods would eventually drive customers away, calling cord cutting "perhaps the most overhyped and overanticipated phenomenon in tech history.
Moffett pointed out that cable companies needed to offer lower-cost packages,[15] but a survey by Strategy Analytics revealed financial considerations were not the primary reason.
[16] In second quarter 2011, Comcast lost 238,000 television customers, compared to 265,000 a year earlier, though the company was making up for these losses with increases in other services such as Internet.
[21] Although the number of subscribers usually increases in the third quarter, in 2012 only 30,000 people added pay television service, according to a study by the International Strategy & Investment Group.
[23] A 2013 Leichtman survey showed that the 13 largest MVPD companies, covering 94 percent of the country, experienced their first year-to-year subscriber losses.
[26] Some broadcasters have elected to embrace the concept of cord-cutting by establishing subscription-based over-the-top content offerings of their own, such as HBO Now.
[27][28] Alongside the 2014 launch of CBS All Access, Les Moonves stated that there was a "very strong possibility" Showtime would also offer an OTT service—a plan which was realized in June 2015.
[34] By 2019, the OTT market was deemed to have become oversaturated and fragmented, as the sheer number of services has led to increased diffusion of content among them, induced by studios using exclusive rights to their content as a selling point for their own new services (such as Disney+, HBO Max, and Peacock), and existing services (such as Netflix) being required to pay premiums to maintain rights to popular archive programs or lose them to rivals, and increase investment in original content as a selling point.
[35][36][37][38] A MoffettNathanson report said the first quarter of 2019 was the worst ever for cord cutting, with an annual rate of 4.8 percent, and virtual MVPDs were not growing either.
[40][41] In 2024, the phenomenon began to occur in Argentina as a result of Javier Milei's current great depression impacting in middle class in that country.
Anninger predicted that the same would hold true for pay television, and that providers would need to offer lower-priced packages with fewer channels in order to reverse the trend.
The cord-shaving phenomenon is highly likely to increase as fibre is rolled out to more areas in South Africa, and as data prices are reduced.
Cablevision began to offer "Cord Cutter" packages that include a free digital antenna and access to its Optimum WiFi network, as well as the option to add HBO Now to the service, making it the first-ever cable provider to do so.
At the end of 2017, most new televisions had Internet capability, allowing access to both paid and free services with no need for a special set-top-box.