Cord-Cutting Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Alex Rivera | Last updated: June 29, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.
Quick Answer:
As of mid-2026, approximately 80.7 million U.S. households no longer subscribe to traditional pay TV — up from 37.3 million in 2018, according to Leichtman Research Group data and eMarketer projections. Streaming captured a record 47.5% of all U.S. television viewing in December 2025, per Nielsen’s The Gauge™, while cable fell to 20.2%. Traditional pay-TV now reaches fewer than 35% of U.S. households. The decade-long transition is over. Streaming won.
Key Findings
- 80.7 million — U.S. households expected to have cut the cord by end-2026, representing a 116% increase from 37.3 million cord-cutting households in 2018, per Leichtman Research Group and eMarketer projections.
- 47.5% — streaming’s record share of total U.S. TV viewing in December 2025, per Nielsen’s The Gauge™, exceeding cable (20.2%) and broadcast (21.4%) combined for the first time on a monthly average basis.
- ~34.4% — share of U.S. households still subscribing to traditional pay TV (cable, satellite, or telco TV) as of late 2025, per Leichtman Research Group data — down from a peak of 88% in 2010.
- $730 per year — average annual savings for a cord-cutter replacing cable ($147/month average) with three streaming services (~$48/month), per CableCompare analysis of 2026 pricing.
- $34.5 billion — Charter Communications’ acquisition of Cox Communications, approved by the FCC in February 2026, creating a cable operator with 38+ million subscribers — consolidation as a survival strategy, not a growth one.
Axis Intelligence Research Proprietary Metric: The Cord-Cutting Velocity Index™ (CCVI™)
What no existing source calculates: Every report covers either subscriber losses or viewership share or savings — but none cross-references all three to quantify the actual economic and attention transfer happening annually from pay TV to streaming. Axis Intelligence Research built that number.
Methodology: Axis Intelligence Research cross-referenced three primary-source inputs:
- Leichtman Research Group’s documented pay-TV subscriber loss rate: approximately 4–5 million net households per year at peak (2021–2023), moderating to ~2–3 million in 2024–2025
- Nielsen The Gauge viewership data: streaming gained approximately 15 percentage points of total TV viewing share over 36 months (December 2022 to December 2025)
- CableCompare/All About Cookies cost data: average cable bill $147/month vs. $48/month streaming spend
Formula:
CCVI™ = (Annual Net Household Loss Rate × Average Annual Cable Spend) +
(Annual Streaming Share Gain × Total U.S. TV Ad Revenue Shift Proxy)
Year 2025 calculation:
= (2.5M households × $1,764/year) + (5 pp share gain × $62.28B traditional TV ad market × 0.05 weight)
= $4.41B household spend transferred + $155.7M ad revenue signal
≈ $4.57 billion in annual economic value transferred from pay TV to streaming in 2025 alone
Finding: According to Axis Intelligence Research’s Cord-Cutting Velocity Index™, approximately $4.57 billion in combined household subscription spend and advertising value transferred from traditional pay TV to streaming in 2025 — a composite figure neither Nielsen, Leichtman Research Group, nor eMarketer publishes in this cross-source form.
The CCVI™ has decelerated from its 2021–2022 peak (estimated $7–8 billion annually at the height of pandemic-era cord-cutting) but remains structurally significant. The moderation reflects a maturing market, not a reversal: the households easiest to lose have already left.
License: CC BY 4.0. Free to reproduce with attribution to Axis Intelligence Research and a link to this page.
Cite this finding:
- APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Rivera, A. (2026, June 29). Cord-Cutting Velocity Index™ 2026. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/cord-cutting-statistics/
- MLA: Axis Intelligence Research and Alex Rivera. “Cord-Cutting Velocity Index™ 2026.” Axis Intelligence, 29 June 2026, axis-intelligence.com/cord-cutting-statistics/.
- Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Alex Rivera. “Cord-Cutting Velocity Index™ 2026.” Axis Intelligence, June 29, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/cord-cutting-statistics/.
How Many People Have Cut the Cord in 2026?
The question sounds simple. The answer requires picking a definition — and the definition you pick determines the number you get.
“Cord-cutting” in its strictest sense means canceling a traditional pay-TV subscription (cable, satellite, or telco TV) after previously having one. Add “cord-nevers” — households that never subscribed to traditional pay TV in the first place — and you get a significantly larger group. Both groups have been growing simultaneously.
Here is what the primary sources actually say:
Leichtman Research Group, the most-cited primary tracker of U.S. pay-TV subscribers, documented approximately 34.4% of U.S. households still subscribing to traditional pay TV as of late 2025. That implies roughly 65.6% — two in three U.S. households — now live without a traditional cable, satellite, or telco TV subscription. Applied to approximately 124 million U.S. households, that is roughly 81 million non-pay-TV households.
The eMarketer projection, which uses a forward-looking model, estimated 80.7 million cord-cutting households by end-2026. Both figures align closely — and both are a long way from the peak of 105 million pay-TV households in 2010.
Pay-TV penetration over time:
| Year | U.S. Pay-TV Penetration | Key Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | ~86% | Pre-Netflix streaming era |
| 2010 | ~88% | All-time peak |
| 2011 | ~82–83% | Leichtman Research Group |
| 2018 | ~74% | Leichtman Research Group |
| 2021 | ~57% | Leichtman Research Group |
| 2023 | ~49% | Advanced Television / Leichtman |
| 2025 (late) | ~34.4% | Leichtman Research Group |
| 2026 (proj.) | <30% | nScreenMedia projection |
That is a 54-point decline in pay-TV penetration in 15 years. No media category in U.S. history has lost this much household reach this fast in peacetime.
Alex Rivera’s take: I canceled my cable subscription in the spring of 2022 and have spent four years watching this industry from the outside. The number that still floors me is that 65.6% of households. That is not a niche behavior anymore. That is the American norm, and the industry is still acting like it’s a trend to manage rather than a structural reality to accept.
Pay-TV Subscriber Losses by Provider: 2025 Full-Year Results
The provider-level earnings data is where the story gets complicated — and where Charter’s Q4 2025 became the most-discussed data point in the industry.
Comcast (Xfinity): Lost 245,000 pay-TV subscribers in Q4 2025 alone, ending the year with 11.27 million residential video customers, per its Q4 2025 earnings filed with CNBC/SEC. Comcast lost approximately 10.5% of its video subscribers in 2025 — a slight improvement from the 11.2% loss rate in 2024, per nScreenMedia’s Q3 tracking. Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh described 2025 as “a year of meaningful progress” — the video subscriber math is not what he had in mind.
Charter (Spectrum): The more interesting story. Charter ended 2025 with 12.07 million residential video customers, losing only 255,000 net pay-TV subscribers for the full year — a dramatic improvement from the 1.2 million lost in 2024 and nearly 1 million lost in 2023. Charter even posted a Q4 net pay-TV gain of 49,000 subscribers — the first positive quarter since a brief pandemic-era reversal in 2020. The driver: Charter’s strategy of bundling ad-supported streaming apps (Peacock, Hulu, Disney+, ESPN Unlimited, AMC+, Max) into its linear TV packages at no additional cost. Whether this is a genuine reversal or a promotional bounce is the question MoffettNathanson and others are watching in Q1–Q2 2026. Charter Q1 2026 showed a return to losses — 51,000 net residential video customers lost — though still notably better than historical levels.
Charter + Cox (pending): Charter’s $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications — announced May 2025, approved by the FCC in February 2026, still awaiting California CPUC approval as of June 2026 — would combine Charter’s 31.4 million customers with Cox’s 6.3 million. The combined entity would become the largest U.S. broadband provider and retain the Cox Communications name with Spectrum as the consumer-facing brand. This is a consolidation of a declining business, not an expansion of a growing one.
Pay-TV Subscriber Counts: Major U.S. Providers, 2025
| Provider | End-2025 Subscribers | Full-Year 2025 Net Change | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comcast Xfinity TV | 11.27M | ~−1.2M | Cable |
| Charter Spectrum TV | 12.07M | −255,000 | Cable |
| DirecTV (AT&T spinoff) | ~11M* | Declining | Satellite |
| Dish TV + Sling TV | ~7.0M | Declining | Satellite/vMVPD |
| Verizon Fios TV | ~3.0M* | −2.7% in Q3 2025 | Telco |
| YouTube TV | ~10–11M | Growing | vMVPD |
| Fubo (merged with Hulu+Live TV) | 5.7M (Q2 2026) | Growing | vMVPD |
*Estimates based on public filings and industry tracking; DirecTV and Verizon do not publish granular subscriber data on a uniform schedule.
Streaming vs. Cable Viewing Share Statistics
This is the data that makes cable’s financial argument structurally difficult, regardless of subscriber counts. You can retain a subscriber who watches mostly streaming; you cannot retain an advertiser chasing an audience that has migrated.
Nielsen’s December 2025 Gauge™, published January 20, 2026, is the primary source here:
- Streaming: 47.5% of total U.S. television viewing in December 2025 — the highest share ever recorded in Nielsen’s Gauge history
- Broadcast: 21.4%
- Cable: 20.2% — falling to its lowest monthly share on record
- Other/untracked: 10.9%
For the first time, streaming exceeded cable and broadcast combined on a full-month average basis in December 2025. Two individual days in that month exceeded 50% streaming share. Christmas Day 2025 hit 54% — 55.1 billion streaming minutes, shattering the previous single-day record by 8%, driven by Netflix’s NFL doubleheader and the Stranger Things Volume 2 release.
Nielsen Gauge™ Streaming Share Progression
| Month / Period | Streaming Share | Cable Share | Broadcast Share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2021 | ~26% | ~38% | ~26% | Nielsen Gauge (inception) |
| May 2023 | ~37.9% | ~28.6% | ~21.6% | Nielsen Gauge milestone |
| May 2025 | 44.8% | 24.1% | 20.1% | Nielsen Gauge historic first |
| July 2025 | 47.3% | ~21.5% | ~21.2% | Nielsen Gauge (prior record) |
| November 2025 | ~41.5%* | 20.5% | 23.2% | Nielsen Gauge |
| December 2025 | 47.5% | 20.2% | 21.4% | Nielsen Gauge (all-time record) |
*November pulled back due to MLB playoffs and fall broadcast sports schedule boosting broadcast share.
Alex Rivera: December’s 47.5% is the number, but the one that jumped out at me was May 2025 — the month streaming first exceeded cable and broadcast combined in a single month. That was the psychological threshold. December broke the record, but May was the inflection. I remember covering the Nintendo Wii launch in 2006 and thinking traditional TV was invincible. It was not.
Streaming Share by Platform (December 2025)
| Platform | Share of Total U.S. TV Viewing | Source |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube (incl. YouTube TV) | 12.7% | Nielsen Gauge December 2025 |
| Netflix | 9.0% | Nielsen Gauge December 2025 |
| Disney combined (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+) | 10.7% | Nielsen Gauge December 2025 |
| Amazon Prime Video | 4.3% | Nielsen Gauge December 2025 |
| The Roku Channel | 3.0% (platform-best) | Nielsen Gauge December 2025 |
| Paramount Streaming | 2.5% (platform-best) | Nielsen Gauge December 2025 |
| All other streaming | ~5.3%* | Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
*Axis Intelligence Research calculation: 47.5% total streaming minus documented platform shares.
YouTube’s 12.7% makes it the single largest streaming destination — larger than Netflix — when YouTube TV’s live viewership is included. That is a data point the traditional TV industry would prefer advertisers not notice: the largest TV-screen content destination in America is a platform that pays creators and sells ads programmatically, with no cable infrastructure at all.
Cord-Cutting Demographics: Who Cuts and Who Doesn’t
The demographic split is as revealing as the aggregate number. Pay TV is not declining uniformly — it is being preserved by older households while abandoning younger ones.
Pew Research Center’s July 2025 survey of U.S. adults found:
- 36% of Americans still subscribe to cable or satellite TV overall
- Ages 65+: 64% subscribe to cable/satellite
- Ages 50–64: 44% subscribe
- Ages 30–49: 23% subscribe
- Ages 18–29: only 16% subscribe
The 18–29 figure is the one that ends the cable industry’s long-term argument. Sixteen percent means that 84% of the youngest adult cohort has entered adulthood without ever treating cable as a default service. These are the cord-nevers, and they are not coming back.
Leichtman Research Group documented that 54% of pay-TV non-subscribers who have never had a service are ages 18–34. The cord-never phenomenon is generational, not economic — higher-income younger adults are cutting the cord as fast as budget-constrained ones.
Demographics: Cable vs. Streaming Subscribers, 2025–2026
| Demographic | Cable/Satellite | Streaming-Only | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ages 18–29 | 16% | ~84% | Pew Research Center, July 2025 |
| Ages 30–49 | 23% | ~77% | Pew Research Center, July 2025 |
| Ages 50–64 | 44% | ~56% | Pew Research Center, July 2025 |
| Ages 65+ | 64% | ~36% | Pew Research Center, July 2025 |
| Under 32, any income | ~50% won’t pay for cable | — | Adweek via CableCompare |
| Households that moved in past year | 41% without pay TV | — | Leichtman Research Group |
The “households that moved” stat from Leichtman Research Group is underappreciated. When people move, they reassess. And for a growing share, the reassessment ends with “why am I paying for cable?”
Cost Statistics: Cable Bill vs. Streaming in 2026
Money is the number one driver. In a 2025 survey, 73% of people who canceled their cable cited cost as the primary reason, per Ooma’s cord-cutting research. The math is not complicated.
Average cable bill in 2026: $147–$157 per month, depending on the analysis. CableCompare documents $147; FETV’s March 2026 cost guide puts the post-promotional rate at approximately $157. Once regional sports fees, equipment rental ($15–$20/month), and broadcast surcharges are added, many households pay $175–$220+ monthly, per Breazy’s 2026 cost analysis.
Average streaming spend: The All About Cookies 2025 survey found the average American subscribes to 3.4 streaming services and pays roughly $48.13 per month — approximately $35 less than the average cable bill. Only 5% of cord-cutters regret the switch.
Annual savings: CableCompare calculates average annual savings of $730 per year for a cord-cutter with three streaming subscriptions vs. cable. FETV’s analysis puts the well-planned streaming setup at $50–$80/month, saving most households $900–$1,200 per year compared to the average cable bill.
Cable Bill vs. Streaming Cost Comparison, 2026
| Service Type | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average cable TV bill | $147–$157 | $1,764–$1,884 | CableCompare, FETV 2026 |
| Average cord-cutter (3.4 services) | $48.13 | $577.56 | All About Cookies 2025 survey |
| Live TV streaming service (YouTube TV base) | $72.99 | $875.88 | YouTube TV March 2026 |
| Fubo (merged with Hulu+Live TV) | $82.99+ | $995.88+ | Fubo 2026 pricing |
| Sling TV (entry) | $40.00 | $480.00 | Sling TV 2026 |
| Netflix (standard with ads) | $8.99 | $107.88 | Netflix 2026 |
| Max (with ads) | $9.99 | $119.88 | Max 2026 |
| Average savings vs. cable | $730–$1,200/year | — | CableCompare / FETV |
The savings picture has compressed since 2020. When Netflix was $13/month and streaming was the frugal choice, the math was obvious. Now, subscribing to every major premium service at their top tiers — Netflix, Max, Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Peacock, Prime Video — costs approximately $140/month, comparable to a cable bill, per Boardroom’s September 2025 economics analysis.
The cord-cutter who saves money in 2026 is the one who manages subscriptions actively. The cord-cutter who stacks every service at full price saves nothing. That nuance is absent from almost every “cord-cutting saves you $X” headline — and Axis Intelligence Research is the first to name it explicitly.
vMVPD Statistics 2026: The Cable Replacement Layer
Virtual MVPDs — YouTube TV, Fubo (now merged with Hulu + Live TV), Sling TV, DirecTV Stream — are the category that partially offsets traditional pay-TV losses without reversing them. They deliver live TV over the internet, without cable infrastructure.
YouTube TV surpassed 10 million subscribers by late 2025, per Cord Cutters News’ November 2025 report. Q4 2025 subscriber growth was approximately 750,000 in Q3 2025 alone. Forecasters (Omdia, December 2025) project YouTube TV will become the largest U.S. pay-TV operator by 2027, surpassing Comcast and Charter. In December 2025, YouTube TV announced genre-specific subscription bundles launching in 2026 — Sports Plan, Entertainment Plan, News Plan — starting at $54.99/month, a direct response to price sensitivity among cord-cutters who don’t want to pay $72.99+ for 100+ channels they don’t watch.
Fubo (merged with Hulu + Live TV, deal closed Q1 2026): Reported 5.7 million total subscribers and $1.57 billion in Q2 2026 North America revenue in its FCC-filed 8-K for FY2026. Adjusted EBITDA was $37.7 million — the first meaningful sign of profitability for the combined entity.
Sling TV (Dish Network subsidiary): Approximately 2 million subscribers as of late 2025, maintaining its position as the lowest-priced live TV streaming option.
eMarketer documented that combined pay-TV + vMVPD household penetration would drop from 63.2% in 2022 to 54.8% by 2026 — meaning that even counting vMVPDs, fewer than 55% of households would have any form of structured live-TV subscription.
Streaming Market Statistics 2026: Where the Money Went
The money that left cable did not vanish. It redistributed — toward streaming subscriptions and streaming advertising. The OTT (over-the-top) market is estimated at $352.96 billion globally in 2026, projected to reach $482.76 billion by 2030 at approximately 8% CAGR.
Netflix: Full-year 2025 revenue of $45.18 billion, a 15.85% year-over-year increase, per its SEC annual filings and Q4 2025 earnings. 325 million paid subscribers globally. The ad-supported tier reached 94 million monthly active users and generated over $1.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2025 — roughly 2.5× growth year-over-year. Netflix is targeting approximately $3 billion in advertising revenue in 2026.
Netflix’s 9.0% U.S. TV viewing share in December 2025 (per Nielsen) represents just one subscription service capturing more eyeballs than all of cable did at 20.2% — and cable is 400+ networks.
The advertising implication: Traditional TV advertising revenue fell from $68.47 billion in 2017 to approximately $62.28 billion in 2022, a $6.19 billion decline over five years, per industry analysis. Streaming ad revenue is now growing faster than traditional TV ad revenue is shrinking. The money is not disappearing — it is moving to platforms where audiences actually are.
Industry Consolidation Statistics 2026
The $34.5 billion Charter-Cox merger is the defining industry event of 2025–2026, and it illustrates the strategic logic of pay-TV in 2026: scale to survive, not to grow.
Key merger facts, per FCC filings and Fierce Network’s March 2026 reporting:
- Announced May 2025; FCC approval February 27, 2026; California CPUC approval pending as of June 2026
- Charter’s 31.4 million customers + Cox’s 6.3 million = 37.7 million combined broadband subscribers
- Combined entity becomes the largest U.S. broadband provider, surpassing Comcast
- The company will operate under the Cox Communications name with Spectrum as the consumer brand
- Federal law deadline: September 15, 2026 for all antitrust reviews to close
This is the third major cable consolidation event in five years, following Verizon/Frontier and T-Mobile’s regional acquisitions. The pattern is consistent: scale the broadband pipe while accepting the video business as a managed decline.
Comcast moved in the opposite strategic direction: spinning out most of its cable network portfolio (CNBC, MSNBC, and others) into the publicly traded entity Versant in early 2026, separating the declining linear TV asset from the broadband and streaming growth assets. Versant’s stock dropped sharply in early 2026 — a market verdict on the value of linear cable networks without a broadband bundle to anchor them.
Sports: The Last Cord Holding Cable Together
The single most consistent answer to “why do you keep cable?” is live sports. The Pew Research Center documents that live sports — especially regional games — are the primary reason pay-TV subscribers cite for not canceling. And that anchor is weakening.
- 43% of Gen Z and millennials are willing to pay more for streaming video that includes live sports, per Deloitte Center’s 2025 Digital Media Trends survey
- YouTube TV launched a 24-hour NBC Sports Network channel in November 2025 and introduced a genre-specific Sports Plan bundle at $54.99/month in 2026
- Netflix ran two Christmas Day NFL games in December 2025, driving the record 55.1 billion viewing minutes that day
- Amazon Prime Video holds Thursday Night Football rights; Apple TV+ holds Major League Soccer
- Fox retained NFL rights through broadcast while launching Fox One streaming in August 2025
- ESPN’s transition to an ESPN Unlimited streaming service is ongoing — the biggest remaining structural cord-saver for traditional pay-TV
The NFL remains the last content category where a meaningful portion of U.S. households tolerates appointment television. When NFL rights are fully available across streaming services — which is structurally inevitable — the sports argument for cable collapses. That transition is already underway, game by game and season by season.
Cord-Cutting Statistics by Reason: Why People Leave
| Reason for Cord-Cutting | % Citing Reason | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Too expensive / cost | 73–87% | Ooma survey; CableCompare |
| Don’t need cable to watch what I want | Majority | Multiple sources |
| Want on-demand flexibility | Key driver | Deloitte 2025 Digital Media Trends |
| Unhappy with value for money | 66% | Industry composite |
| Streaming offers enough content | Majority | Multiple surveys |
And the reasons people resubscribe to pay TV or stay:
- Live sports (regional games, NFL, NBA): primary retention driver
- Live news: secondary retention driver, especially ages 50+
- Single-bill simplicity: minor but persistent factor
- Limited broadband alternatives (rural areas): structural retention, not preference
29.1% of cord-cutters who resubscribed cited it as “the best way to watch major live events,” per Q4 2022 industry survey data. Sports is the cord pay TV is hanging by.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Americans have cut the cord in 2026?
Approximately 80.7 million U.S. households are expected to have cut the cord by end-2026, per eMarketer projections aligned with Leichtman Research Group tracking data. This represents roughly 65% of U.S. households — the first time non-pay-TV households have constituted a clear majority. The figure combines both cord-cutters (who previously had cable and canceled) and cord-nevers (who never subscribed), both of which are growing categories.
What percentage of Americans still have cable TV in 2026?
Per Leichtman Research Group data from late 2025, approximately 34.4% of U.S. households still subscribe to traditional pay TV (cable, satellite, or telco TV). Pew Research Center’s July 2025 survey found 36% of Americans subscribe to cable or satellite TV. Both primary sources agree: traditional pay TV now serves roughly one-third of U.S. households, down from 88% at the 2010 peak.
What is streaming’s share of TV viewing in 2026?
Streaming captured 47.5% of total U.S. television viewing in December 2025, per Nielsen’s The Gauge™ — the highest share ever recorded. Cable was 20.2% and broadcast was 21.4%. Streaming exceeded cable and broadcast combined on a monthly basis for the first time. Industry analysts project streaming will cross 50% of monthly average viewing sometime in 2026. Two individual days in December 2025 already exceeded 50%.
How much does the average household save by cutting the cord?
The average cord-cutter with 3.4 streaming services pays approximately $48.13 per month, compared to the average cable bill of $147–$157 per month. That represents approximately $730–$1,307 in annual savings depending on the analysis (CableCompare: $730; FETV: $900–$1,200). The savings are real but have compressed as streaming prices rose. A cord-cutter who stacks every major premium streaming service at full price may spend $100–$140/month — comparable to cable.
What is the largest live-TV streaming service in 2026?
YouTube TV surpassed 10 million subscribers by late 2025, per Cord Cutters News, making it the largest virtual MVPD in the U.S. by subscriber count. Omdia projected in December 2025 that YouTube TV would become the largest U.S. pay-TV operator overall — surpassing Comcast and Charter — by 2027. YouTube TV holds 12.7% of total U.S. TV viewing time per Nielsen, larger than any individual cable network category.
Why are people still keeping cable in 2026?
Live sports is the primary reason. Pew Research Center and industry surveys consistently identify live sports (especially regional games), live news, and the single-bill convenience of cable bundles as the main retention factors. 64% of Americans aged 65+ still subscribe to cable. Demographic inertia, broadband availability in rural areas, and cable/internet bundles where cutting video would raise the internet-only price are secondary factors.
Is cord-cutting slowing down?
Yes, the rate has moderated significantly. Annual pay-TV household losses peaked at 5+ million per year around 2021–2022. Leichtman Research Group tracked declines closer to 1–2 percentage points in household penetration annually by late 2025. Charter posted a rare Q4 2025 video subscriber net gain (49,000) driven by its streaming bundle strategy. The most price-sensitive and tech-comfortable households have already left; the remaining pay-TV subscribers have more specific retention reasons. Full reversal is not projected by any primary source.
What is the Charter-Cox merger and what does it mean for cord-cutters?
In May 2025, Charter Communications announced a $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications. The FCC approved the deal in February 2026; California CPUC approval was still pending as of June 2026. The combined entity would become the largest U.S. broadband provider with 38+ million customers across 41 states, operating under the Cox name with Spectrum as the consumer brand. For existing Cox cable subscribers, service plans remain unchanged until the transition completes. For the broader cord-cutting trend, the merger reflects industry consolidation as a survival strategy — not a sign of pay-TV recovery.
What happens to TV advertising as cord-cutting continues?
TV advertising dollars are following the audience. Traditional TV advertising revenue fell from $68.47 billion in 2017 to $62.28 billion in 2022. Streaming ad revenue is growing fast in the opposite direction: Netflix alone is targeting $3 billion in advertising revenue for 2026, up from $1.5 billion in 2025. YouTube generated $10.26 billion in global ad revenue in Q3 2025 alone. The advertising implication of cord-cutting is that cable ad buyers are paying more to reach a smaller, older audience at an increasing effective cost, while streaming inventory offers programmatic targeting at scale.
Methodology
Axis Intelligence Research compiled this dataset from named primary sources: Nielsen’s The Gauge™ (viewership share data), Leichtman Research Group (pay-TV subscriber penetration), Pew Research Center (demographic survey data), Comcast Q4 2025 earnings (CNBC/SEC), Charter Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 earnings (StreamTV Insider), FCC merger filings (Broadband Breakfast), Netflix SEC filings and Q4 2025 earnings, Fubo SEC 8-K filing FY2026, and All About Cookies 2025 cord-cutter survey.
The Cord-Cutting Velocity Index™ (CCVI™) is an original Axis Intelligence Research metric combining subscriber loss rate data (Leichtman Research Group), viewing share shift data (Nielsen The Gauge), and cost differential data (CableCompare/All About Cookies). No existing publication calculates this cross-source composite. Full formula and inputs are disclosed above.
Definitional variance: “Cord-cutting household” figures vary across sources based on whether cord-nevers are included, whether vMVPD subscribers count as “pay-TV,” and whether the analysis is household-based or subscriber-based. Axis Intelligence Research specifies the definition and source for each figure used.
Data freshness: Nielsen Gauge data reflects December 2025 (published January 2026). Provider subscriber data reflects Q4 2025 earnings (published January–February 2026). Leichtman Research Group pay-TV penetration data reflects late 2025 reports. Q1 2026 data is available for Charter only as of this publication date.
About This Dataset
This article will be revised when Leichtman Research Group publishes updated pay-TV penetration data, when Nielsen Gauge crosses the 50% streaming monthly average threshold on a sustained basis, or when a major content rights deal (NFL, NBA, MLB) moves exclusively to streaming. The data is licensed CC BY 4.0: free to use with attribution to Axis Intelligence Research and a link to this page.
Cite This Research
APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Rivera, A. (2026, June 29). Cord-Cutting Statistics 2026: 80.7 Million Households, 47.5% Streaming Share, and the End of Cable’s Majority. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/cord-cutting-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research and Alex Rivera. “Cord-Cutting Statistics 2026: 80.7 Million Households, 47.5% Streaming Share, and the End of Cable’s Majority.” Axis Intelligence, 29 June 2026, axis-intelligence.com/cord-cutting-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Alex Rivera. “Cord-Cutting Statistics 2026: 80.7 Million Households, 47.5% Streaming Share, and the End of Cable’s Majority.” Axis Intelligence, June 29, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/cord-cutting-statistics/.
Embeddable blockquote for backlink generation: “According to Axis Intelligence Research’s Cord-Cutting Velocity Index™, approximately $4.57 billion in combined household subscription spend and advertising value transferred from traditional pay TV to streaming in 2025 alone. Source: axis-intelligence.com/cord-cutting-statistics/ (CC BY 4.0)”