Alternate Delivery Beats Cable In Percentage Of American Subscribers

More American TV households are receiving video programming via an alternate delivery system than ever before, while cable multiple system operators lost 1.1 million subscribers and wired cable’s penetration percentage hit a 17-year low, according to a TVB analysis of Nielsen Media Research data for July 2007.
According to Nielsen NTI data, national ADS penetration reached 27.5 percent of television households in July 2007, up from 23.3 percent in July 2006, and now represents 31.3 percent of subscription television customers (those paying for video delivery). Over the same period, national wired-cable penetration of television households fell from 62.8 percent to 61.1 percent -- the last time wired cable was lower was in February 1990.
The number of wired-cable subscribers dropped to 68.1 million in July from 69.2 million a year earlier; ADS homes jumped from 25.7 million to 30.6 million in the same period. Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) delivery, the largest component of ADS, is now estimated at 27.0 percent, up from 22.7 percent in July 2006.