In Pay-TV in the US 2017, LRG’s 15th annual study of the topic, the analyst found that overall 79% of US TV households take pay-TV with 92% of TV households have a pay-TV service and/or an over-the-air antenna. This compared with 94% in 2015. Mean reported monthly spending on pay-TV service among subscribers is about $106 - an increase of 3% in the past year.

Of those that don’t subscribe, about two-thirds were former pay-TV subscribers, while a third never had pay-TV. A tenth of non-subscribers indicated that they plan to subscribe to a pay-TV service in the next six months including almost a quarter that had a pay-TV service in the past year. In addition, 7% of non-subscribing TV households subscribed to a pay-TV service in the past three years, 7% last subscribed to pay-TV over three years ago, and about 7% never subscribed to a pay-TV service. Just over an eight of the survey were likely to switch in the next six months, compared with 12% in 2016 and 11% in 2012.

The survey also found that just under three in ten of TV households with annual incomes less than $50,000 do not subscribe to a pay-TV service, compared with 16% with household incomes above this level. Two-fifths of those using one TV at home are non-subscribers, compared with 24% using two TVs, and 12% using three or more TVs.

Commenting on the trends revealed in the Pay-TV in the US 2017 survey Bruce Leichtman, LRG president and principal analyst warned that fall is subs was not some recent phenomenon. "The decline in pay-TV penetration is not solely a function of recent disconnects. Among those that do not currently get a pay-TV service, about one-third subscribed in the past three years, one-third subscribed over three years ago, and one-third never subscribed.”