Broadband-only homes in U.S. at 2.7%, Nielsen stats show

Are reports of 10 million or more broadband-only homes in the U.S. an overstatement?

At this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, numerous media executives cited the proliferation of homes that have broadband but no pay-TV video service as the reason for launching over-the-top video services.

For example, CBS chief executive Les Moonves said that "it was the realization that there are 10 million broadband-only homes" that caused him to pull the trigger on launching streaming services CBS All-Access and CBSN.

Meanwhile, Roger Lynch, CEO of Dish Network's (NASDAQ: DISH) new OTT operation, Sling Television, put the broadband-only tally at around 15 million.

However, a new report from MoffettNathanson, released Thursday, puts Nielsen's sample of broadband homes at only around 2.7 percent. That would work out to just over 3 million of the just over 115 million total homes it counts.

The broadband-only constituency is certainly growing: Nielsen pegged it at only around 0.5 percent of homes when it first started including broadband-only users in its sampling in September 2013. The benchmark only stood at 1.5 percent as recently as January 2015. 

MoffettNathanson broadband only homes

For more:
- read this MoffettNathanson report (PDF, sub. req.)
- read this MediaPost story

Related links:
Dish unveils $20 per month OTT service called Sling TV
Moonves on CBSN: 'We call it the Cable Bypass News Channel'
Nielsen adds broadband-only homes to TV universe