HOBOKEN, N.J.—As cord-cutting continues to impact the pay-TV industry, a recent study during the second quarter of 2019 by OpenVault Broadband Industry has found a clue in figuring out if subscribers are contemplating a switch, and it is all based on their broadband usage.
According to the report, thousands of subscribers that made the move to broadband-only packages during the first half of 2019 steadily increased broadband consumption in the build-up to the switch. The future cord-cutters would use broadband 14% more than average subscribers six months before the change, 20% the month prior and 30% during the month they cut the cord. In the three months following, the difference rose to 70%.
OVBI’s report also highlights the difference of broadband usage of internet-only and pay-TV houses based off an aggregate of millions of subscribers. The average bandwidth consumption of internet-only houses came in at 390.42 GB, while pay-TV homes used an average of 210.89 GB, a difference of 85%.
Currently, the average broadband usage in the U.S. is 271 GB, according to OVBI, a 25% growth year-over-year from Q2 2018. Year-over-year median usage rose nearly 32% to 144.5 GB, which OBVI says indicates increased usage across all levels of consumption.
Additional findings shows that Usage-Based Billing still helps to limit the number of “power users,” subscribers who consume more than 1 TB of data per month, as they were 23% less likely to exceed the mark than Flat Rate Billing customers, and 61% less likely to exceed 2 TB.
“As more and more subscribers exhibit cord-cutting behavior, visibility into usage behavior and sound Usage-Based Billing plans will help operators to manage increasingly buys networks and ensure subscriber satisfaction,” said Josh Barstow, executive vice president of corporate strategy and business development at OVBI.
The full report can be found here.
