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42% of Pay TV Customers Say They Need it for Live Sports, News

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While over-the-top (OTT) services deal with problems of quality and latency, a white paper suggests they need to conquer a deeper problem of perception. According to research sponsored by Telaria and Adobe Advertising Cloud, 42 percent of pay TV subscribers believe they need to keep their service for access to live sports, news, and events. However, even if they did learn that several streaming plans offer live local broadcast channels, they still wouldn't know how to proceed: 55 percent of pay TV customers find cord-cutting options too confusing.

"There is always a learning curve associated with new consumer technology. Solving for awareness moves the consumer partially up the adoption curve, but driving demand still requires promoting benefits and ease of use to force a behavioral change," the paper says.

If the industry can solve this knowledge gap, it stands to win plenty of new customers. The report says 51 percent of current pay TV customers are satisfied with the price they pay, while 77 percent of live streaming OTT customers say the same. Also, 30 percent of pay TV customers would cut the cord if they were assured they could live stream sports, news, and events, while another 40 percent would consider doing so.

The report's data comes from an online survey of 750 U.S. adults conducted in April and May of this year. For more, download "Inside the Minds of Cord-Cutters and Cable-Keepers" for free (no registration required).

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