"Low" Netflix impact for pay TV

The rise of subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Instant Video has little impact on cable, satellite and telecommunication premium television — despite scuttlebutt to the contrary, according to a new report.

With cable operators such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter jettisoning video subscribers (dubbed cord-cutting) on a quarterly basis, analyst speculation suggested Netflix and other Internet-based video services were siphoning away subs — a contention denied by multichannel video program distributors (MVPD) and Netflix.

London-based Futuresource Consulting, in a Nov. 20 report, said the specter of cord-cutting was overblown, with forecasts indicating that less than 5% of MVPD subscribers exiting in the next two to three years would be due to SVOD.

“Although the Netflix service has been a major disruptive force, driven by high-profile tie-ins with connected CE device manufacturers and streaming deals with studios, its direct impact on the pay-TV industry has been minimal,” Carl Hibbert, head of broadcast, content and services at Futuresource Consulting, said in a statement.