According to the Yankee Group, one out of every eight traditional TV users has plans to either scale back their TV package -- or cancel service entirely. While much has been made of "cord cutting," most TV users (and just over 90% of U.S. households subscribe to some form of pay TV) have held on to their TV service despite the recession and sometimes bi-annual rate hikes. This latest study however suggests that high prices and an increase in broadband video platforms (specifically game consoles) are slowly changing things.

"Admittedly, this is a small phenomenon now, but a number or recent transactions and new items point to a shift in consumer thinking," said Vince Vittore, analyst at Yankee Group and author of the study. However, it's a young shift. Consumers who do cut off pay TV services will most likely be in the 18-34 age group -- and heavy mobile users or gamers notes the firm.

"At the most basic level, the decision to cut off pay TV services is an economic one," says Vince Vittore, principal analyst and co-author of the report. "As programmers continue to demand ever higher fees, which inevitably get passed on to consumers, we believe more consumers will be forced to consider coax-cutting."

As we recently just discussed at length, while Internet video may ultimately pose a threat to traditional TV services -- it isn't much of one at the moment. TV ad revenues still absolutely tower over online video -- and the two are still currently seen by consumers as complimentary. Still, an inevitable explosion in cheap and easy broadband video services, an increase in last mile broadband speeds, and endless TV rate hikes all lead down one fairly obvious path.