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Streaming shift - pay-TV cord-cutting
What it is
Households dropping cable or DTH subscriptions in favour of streaming on connected televisions. India is following the pattern seen elsewhere, with pay-TV losses steepest in tier-1 cities where broadband penetration is highest
In smaller towns the substitute is often free satellite rather than streaming, so the pay-TV base erodes from both the top and the bottom simultaneously
Impact on industries
- The structural threat to the whole distribution layer - a streaming home needs no box, headend, LCO or carriage, and the highest-ARPU urban subscribers go first
- US precedent is sobering - pay-TV there lost roughly 25 mn subscribers over a decade, on the same drivers
- Cable operators own the broadband connection that cord-cutting requires, so the operator that pivots to fibre captures the household it is losing as a TV customer
- Cord-cutting is slower in India than in the US because pay-TV pricing is already low, so the saving from switching is modest and the transition is gradual