iPad Users More Likely To Cut Cable Cord

Here are the learnings:

"According to the study, a third of iPad owners are 'likely' to cancel their pay TV service sometime in the next six months, and 12.9% are 'highly likely' to cancel their service. In comparison, 13.5% of iPad intenders and 9.6% of average adult broadband users are likely to cancel their service. It gets even worse when the possibility of downgrading comes into play: A whopping 35.5% of iPad owners and 29.5% of intenders are to varying degrees likely to downgrade their pay TV service, compared to 20.7% of regular broadband users. For some perspective, Apple sold 4.19 million iPads last quarter."

Certainly the question can be asked what percentage will actually cut the cord. Hard to believe that folks would replace their beautiful 40" HD Flat Screen Color TV for a 10" tablet. Still, the younger generation is more mobile, buys less big screen toys, and likes that content can follow them and not the other way around.

I see my cable bill every month and it drives me crazy. I constantly wrestle with downgrading my service based on our viewing behavior. To me, the cost to buy premium services may outweigh its benefits. I love watching films on demand, but rarely am home to watch. I would say we watch about 6-8 premium movies a month. I could buy transaction titles only and perhaps save some money. Add a low cost Netflix subscription and stream these same premium movies and perhaps I would overall find myself saving even more money.

The iPad represents another platform for viewing streamed content. Cable must pursue a strategy of extending its cable subscription across multiple devices to compete effectively against Netflix and others. It will be this added value that may stop folks from being likely to actually cutting their cable cord.