Since 2008, the number of television channels available to the average American viewer has soared from about 129 to 200. Yet the number of those channels that viewers regularly watch declined this year to just 16.

That startling statistic from research firm Nielsen illustrates why cord cutting — the trend of pay-TV customers either scaling back or stopping their subscriptions — accelerated this year.

After all, why would anyone want to pay more for all 32 flavors of ice cream if they only eat vanilla and chocolate? Frustrated cable and satellite subscribers have long asked a similar question.

In 2016, viewers will have even more options outside the standard bundle of 100 TV channels as a growing number of Internet-delivered services — from Netflix to Amazon Prime Video and Sling TV — offer a narrower, custom selection of programs. With streaming media devices like the Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV Stick and Roku on the market, tech companies are encouraging viewers to cut even more cords.

“Not surprisingly, you’re seeing more tech companies following the needs of frustrated customers,” said Stephen Beck, founder of the management consultant firm cg42 of Wilton, Conn. “They’re going after a willing base of customers who feel they’ve been trapped for a long time.”

Last month, research and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers released a study that found about a fifth of pay-TV subscribers were thinking about trimming or cutting their service next year. And pay-TV lost nearly 1 million subscribers in the first half of 2015 alone, according to the industry research firm MoffittNathanson.

Cg42 also surveyed 21,000 U.S. residents in November and found that 53 percent of cable customers would leave their current service “if they felt they had the choice.”

Streaming devices

The survey also found that 47 percent of people who were planning to buy a streaming media device to attach to their TVs, like an Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast or Fire TV Stick, wanted one to replace their current pay-TV service.

Beck said the average $113-per-month price is a factor for cord cutters, but there’s also the perception that they get greater value by not paying for a package that includes 500 channels they don’t watch.

Back to Gallery Cord cutting accelerated in 2015, on track to continue... 4 1 of 4 Photo: Handout, McClatchy-Tribune News Service 2 of 4 Photo: Ali Goldstein, Associated Press 3 of 4 Photo: Sesame Workshop, McClatchy-Tribune News Service 4 of 4 Photo: K.C. Bailey, Netflix







And that gets back to Nielsen’s research, which has found the average number of regularly watched channels remained at about 17 from 2008 to 2013, despite the rise in the total number of channels available, both from pay-TV services and free over-the-air stations. However, popular channels dropped to 16.8 in 2014 and 15.9 this year.

Cord cutters pay about $46 per month for alternative TV services, but feel “in a position where you can control what you consume and you control what you’re spending,” Beck said.

Mobile devices have also cut into traditional viewing time. Another Nielsen study found that 18-to-34-year-olds are using their smartphones, tablets or streaming boxes 26 percent more than a year earlier, while traditional TV viewing through cable, satellite or over-the-air TV has declined since 2010.

The cord cutting and mobile trends don’t necessarily mean that the pay-TV industry is doomed to suddenly blow up like a Death Star next year — or even the year after. One industry estimate forecasts that the North American pay-TV market will be worth about $90.7 billion in 2020.

Wide selection

Cable and satellite companies still offer the convenience of a wide selection of local and national channels in a familiar, mostly reliable format.

“For the vast majority of Americans, that traditional pay-TV bundle is the best value for them,” said Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV, an Internet-delivered TV service owned by satellite giant Dish Network.

But the slow decline of pay-TV subscriptions has been clear for the last five or six years. Moreover, many young adults who are now forming their own households are not signing up for pay-TV at all. The industry calls them “cord nevers.”

At the same time, pay-TV companies continue to raise their rates.

“It’s not their fault,” Lynch said. “They’re not gouging customers. The programmers are raising fees at a rate that’s faster than that. That’s a factor that’s only going to get worse, not better.”

Brett Sappington, research director for Parks Associates of Dallas, said pay-TV companies were generally slow to react to the trend because “many saw it as a long-term problem they were going to have to deal with at some point” in the more distant future.

Now, they are experimenting with their own alternative services, offering what the industry calls “skinny bundles” — cheaper subscription packages with fewer channels.

Comcast, for example, is testing Xfinity on Campus at several colleges around the country, attempting to lure back students who are most likely to ditch cable TV after they graduate.

It’s not the spring of 2016 the pay-TV companies are worried about, Sappington said. “They’re really concerned about 2018 and 2019.”

Satellite TV provider Dish Network is already ahead of the pack with its Sling TV, which was released in February and now offers about 65 of the more popular pay-TV channels.

Service starts with a basic 23-channel level that costs $20 per month with no long-term contract. There are optional add-on levels that include sports, HBO, Spanish language and news networks.

Here to stay

Lynch wouldn’t say how many subscribers the service has enrolled, but he said it has not cut into Dish Network’s base. Dish Network began developing Sling TV six years ago when top executives realized the cord-cutting trend was not going away.

“We knew it was going to take a while to build all the technology,” Lynch said.

Sling TV started in a year that also saw Netflix continue to expand. The Los Gatos company’s streaming movie and TV service now has 69 million members worldwide, including 43 million in the U.S.

“Netflix is the poster child for TV and Internet convergence,” said a report from stock analyst firm Needham & Co.

Wrestling fans

Still, the future of television might look more like World Wrestling Entertainment, which is reaching its most avid fans over YouTube and a $9.99-per-month streaming service called WWE Network.

According to Parks Associates, WWE Network is already the fifth-most-popular subscription video service, behind Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu and MLB.TV, and ahead of HBO Now.

And as the Needham report noted, the WWE Network “is already larger than the (pay-per-view) business it replaced.”

The WWE Network is an example of the personalized programming the TV industry needs to give viewers, said Christopher Vollmer, global entertainment and media adviser leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ global strategy team.

He noted that NBC has also started an online channel for comedy, while AMC has one for horror films. Pay-TV providers might start repackaging their bundles with a combination of general and niche channels, he said.

One way or another, “the industry has to get more in line with the consumer trends,” he said.

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny