It’s what cable companies have been dreading, cord cutters making an impact and dropping subscriptions for cheaper streaming options. A new report by research firm NPD, has revealed that U.S. cable subscribers to premium packages has dropped 6% during the last 18 months, whilst streaming services like Netflix have grown.

The study was based on a survey of 7,500 respondents in U.S. homes that had internet access. It showed that subscribers to premium cable such as that offered by HBO, Showtime, and Starz dropped by 6% in 18 months, from March 2012 (38%) to August 2013 (32%).

During the same period, homes subscribing to SVOD companies like Netflix, Amazon Prime instant, Hulu Plus and other video-on-demand services grew 4% to 27%.

Although the report does not prove conclusively that users are dropping cable for SVOD because it did not directly ask the question, you don’t just drop cable and have no other option, do you?

Speaking about the report, analyst for NPD, Russ Crupnick suggested that streaming was the reason for users deserting cable, “As SVOD increasingly strives to become a channel itself, viewers might consider it to be an adequate substitution for other premium channels, or perhaps they are switching to economize on their time and money spent.”

The simple fact is that Netflix are gaining millions of subscribers and the low prices will put the idea of cutting the cord into peoples minds. But it’s not all bad news for cable as many of those subscribers use the service as an add-on so they can keep watching the latest shows.

Netflix have shown that a low cost streaming service is becoming more popular than high priced cable. They had around 30 million U.S. streaming subscribers at the end of quarter 3 in 2013, while HBO only had 28 million.

If you still subscribe to cable but dont like the bills then check out our top tips to cut cable costs.