Nielsen: Video cord-cutting growth mostly hype

Video cord-cutting may not be as explosive a trend as some recent research has suggested, according to new survey results from TV ratings and research firm Nielsen.

The company unveiled the results at last week’s Consumer 360 conference, and while it dismissed the idea that a video cord-cutting revolution is occurring, it acknowledged that the trend is happening to some extent in the young households.

The survey’s key metric: 3.9% of the U.S. population had broadband Internet but no cable TV service in January 2010. That’s the same percentage reported for the same month a year earlier. In January 2008, it sat at 3.2%.

At the same time, the percentage of people with both cable TV service and broadband was 66.3% in January of this year, compared to 61.6% in January 2009 and 54.8% in January 2008.

The figures do not specifically disprove that video cord-cutting is a myth, but the research may be at odds with other market studies, such as a report from The Convergence Consulting Group in April, which suggested video cord-cutting is on the rise and service provider video subscriptions are slowing. Meanwhile, another recent study, from Parks Associates, described video cord-cutting as a nascent concern but not yet a measurably destructive one.

Nielsen said its research did indicate that some younger demographics are less likely than older segments to subscriber to broadband Internet but not to cable TV. These demographic segments also watch about 40% less TV overall than the national average but do not engage in heavy online video streaming, Nielsen said.

Still, online video viewing continues to increase, with the number of viewers per month rising 6% from last year to this year, and the amount of time spent online year over year overall grew about 9%.