Cord cutting, or canceling pay television services in favor of watching TV by other means such as online, has been a concern among media buyers for years, report Media Life magazine.

The report, in part, added:

“But a new worry is emerging that may be an even bigger threat to cable networks.

“t’s cord shaving, which involves the same concept – saving money by cutting back on pay TV – but a different execution.

“With cord shaving, pay TV subscribers cut their subscriptions to the least possible number of channels. These so-called skinny bundles offer just a handful of networks that people really watch, instead of the 150 or so that come with a standard package, many of which don’t get viewed.

“”A new report from Pivotal Research Group finds that cord shaving is having a notable impact on cable networks’ household penetration, which posted a decline of 2.4 percent during the most recent Nielsen measurement period.

““We view the data as illustrative of a broader trend of ‘cord-shaving’ and subscriber interest in increasingly skinny bundles, which is a more significant threat to cable network owners than the less pronounced reality of ‘cord-cutting,’” writes Brian Wieser, senior research analyst at Pivotal.

“Pivotal’s report notes that since 2014 there’s been an average 2 percent annual decline in household subscribers to individual networks.”