by Wayne Friedman , April 21, 2014

Pay TV cord-cutting is still on the rise.Some 6.5% of U.S. homes in 2013 -- 7.6 million homes -- are cord-cutters, according to a new study by Experian Marketing Services. This is up from 4.5% -- or 5.1 million homes -- in 2010.Experian defines cord-cutting as homes that have high-speed Internet but no cable or satellite television service. According to Nielsen’s 2014 estimates, there are 115.6 million U.S. TV homes and 294 million TV viewers age 2 and older.The results also indicate that adults under the age of 35 are twice as likely not to have a pay TV service -- 12.4% of those households where an adult under the age of 35 lives are cord-cutters. Experian says these young adults may not be necessarily be defined as “cord-cutters” because they may never have had a pay TV service.When you factor in those young adult homes with either a Netflix or Hulu account, Experian says, the share of young adult households that don’t have a pay TV service jumps to 24.3%.The results also reveal that adults who watch video on either a tablet or smartphone are 1.5 times more likely than average to be cord-cutters. Those who watch streaming video on a television are 3.2 times more likely to be cable-cutters.Adding to this category, the study says those using television primarily for watching streaming or downloaded video are 5.7 times more likely to be cord-cutters.The data is drawn from a Simmons Connect study of 24,219 U.S. adults in summer 2013, which looked at consumer lifestyles, attitudes, brand preferences and cross-platform media use covering 11 platforms, including smartphones, digital tablets and home computers. The report also sources data from Hitwise for online consumer behavior.

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