Trend Watch: Cutting the Cord

The uptrend in ‘cord cutting’ mentions seen in past years helped us cement our bearish outlook for companies Dish Network (DISH), while informing bullish outlooks for names like Roku (ROKU).

Consumers mentions of canceling cable (“cutting the cord”) topped out in the fourth quarter of 2019.

However, the trend is still averaging more than 200 mentions per day in the past 90 days, a decline of just -11% from the previous year...something we attribute partially to the normalization of streaming services.

Streaming mentions increased +20% YoY in the past 90 days.

The continued high volume of this trend, paired with DISH’s ongoing subscriber decline, suggests that the cord cutting movement isn’t going anywhere any time soon.