800,000 pay-TV subscribers could 'cut cord' in '16, new survey says

About  800,000 pay-TV subscribers, or about 1 percent of the market, could "cut the cord" this year, according to a new survey from the consulting firm cg42. A bigger threat to the industry seems to be those who never order cable- or satellite-TV at all as those ranks now number about 17 million, the survey estimates.

The news would seem to be good for Comcast Corp. and cable industry as analysts for years have warned of millions of people who could cut the cord to rid themselves of the hassle of an unsatisfactory cable service and a big monthly bill.

Though pay-TV consumers will cut the cord over time, it seems now likely the cutters will be a dribble rather than a flood.

Steve Beck, cg42's founding and managing partner, said "the cord cutting behavior, I think, is still in its early days." He  believed that the 800,000 figure i the survey was conservative and could ultimately be higher, but not as much as double.

An issue, Beck said, is that pay-TV packages aren't connecting with younger adults or millenials. "The offer is not well-designed for how these people want to consume the content," Beck said.