As Netflix nosedives, 31 million people are expected to drop cable by June

Even as Netflix reports losing subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, a new YouGov analysis forecasts the service could start courting 31 million potential new subscribers in the United States and 5 million more in Great Britain in the next six months.

That’s how many people the British market research and data analytics firm estimates will abandon traditional pay TV, a stunning 30 percent of U.S. consumers with a cable subscription and 19 percent of British adults with a paid-TV subscription.

American adults at least 55 years old (26 percent) are even more likely than young adults ages 18 to 24 (22 percent) to bail on cable, according to the new YouGov report. In Great Britain, people 35 to 44 are most likely to drop their traditional pay TV subscriptions.

Cost-cutting (37 percent) remains the most likely reason people choose cord-cutting. The ability to watch on the move (25 percent) and access to shows unavailable on traditional TV (22 percent) are the reasons for using streaming services cited most often by Americans.

Netflix last week said it lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter. It took an even bigger hit (700,000 viewers) after leaving the Russian market in a protest against the war in Ukraine. The streaming service says it could lose another 2 million paying customers by June.

Some people are returning to traditional TV. New York and California are fueling a reverse movement called “cord-revivers,” according to a new survey by TiVo. (Yes, that TiVo: The onetime DVR king is also in the streaming game now with two TiVo Stream devices.). One in four American households that dropped either cable or satellite service for lower-cost streaming became traditional pay-TV subscribers again, according to the new trends report called “Finding Balance in the Great Rebundling.”

Programming available from local cable providers but few streaming services, notably regional sports networks, has also driven consumers back to the traditional bundle.

Forty percent of cord-revivers live in New York or California, according to the TiVo survey of more than 4,500 adults. Close to half are 40 or younger, encompassing Gen Z and millennials. Tech Hive