Social Rocket
Cord-cutting continues – but no longer in such a straight line as a few years ago. In the US, 30,5 percent of households are now "digital only", meaning without classic pay TV, vMVPD or TV antenna. At the same time, large pay-TV providers are losing customers noticeably more slowly than a year ago. The reason: cable packages are themselves becoming streaming bundles.
For marketers, this is more than a US distribution story. It shows how strongly linear television, connected TV and streaming are merging into a shared advertising ecosystem.
Streaming replaces TV – and at the same time becomes part of the TV package
In its current Future of TV briefing, Digiday points to the mid-year data of the ARF DASH TV Universe Study. According to it, 30,5 percent of US households count as "digital only". 2025 it was 29,5 percent. The long-term trend away from classic pay TV thus continues.
In parallel, the pace of cancellations has eased at several large providers. Charter lost 2026 21.000 video customers in the second quarter, after 80.000 in the same quarter of the previous year. EchoStar reported a decline of around 241.000 pay-TV subscribers, after 261.000 a year earlier.
The new logic is especially clear at Charter. The company attributes the slower losses itself to simplified pricing and to streaming services being integrated directly into its TV packages. Spectrum TV customers now receive ad-supported versions of services such as Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Unlimited, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock and other offerings without a separate individual booking.
This partly reverses the original cord-cutting calculation: anyone paying for several streaming subscriptions individually can again find a bundled TV package cheaper or at least more convenient.
For advertising, the line between TV and streaming is blurring
This development fits a broader shift in usage. Nielsen reported for 2026 that 66,7 percent of ad-supported TV time among 18- to 49-year-olds already goes to streaming. At the same time, linear television remains relevant for sport, news and live events.
The useful distinction is therefore less and less "TV or streaming". For media planning, what matters more is which audience can be reached on which screen, in which usage context and via which inventory.
This also concerns platforms that were originally not intended as TV providers. In Germany, for example, YouTube is increasingly developing into a connected-TV channel. Formats such as YouTube's "Watch With" additionally combine classic live content with creator commentary.
Reach is becoming more fragmented – measurement matters more
For advertisers, this creates a familiar problem on a larger scale: the same household can use linear TV, FAST, YouTube, subscription streaming and ad-supported streaming services in parallel.
A campaign plan that buys these environments separately can therefore easily reach the same people several times. Conversely, individual audiences can be underestimated if measurement systems capture only part of the usage.
That measurement is becoming more strategic is also shown by the current consolidation around Nielsen, DoubleVerify and LiveRamp. The decisive question is increasingly not only where inventory is available, but how reach can be deduplicated across platforms and impact measured comparably.
What German marketers can take away
The concrete household figures come from the US and cannot be transferred directly to Germany. The structural trend is nonetheless relevant: streaming does not simply replace classic television, but is increasingly integrated into the same packages, devices and advertising plans.
For brands, this means CTV, YouTube, FAST and classic TV should no longer automatically be planned as separate silos. A joint video strategy with clear audience logic, frequency control and, wherever possible, cross-platform measurement makes more sense.
Cord-cutting is therefore not disappearing. It is only changing form: the cable connection is losing importance, while the bundle is returning as a distribution and advertising model.