According to TNS, the proliferation of streaming video alternatives, while still posing a long-term competitive challenge for traditional pay TV providers, may also be producing beneficial results across the service category.

The research house says 16% of pay TV subscribers recently adjusted their level of video service - either upgrading to a higher tier or downgrading to a lower tier sometime during the past year. Pay TV households that also stream video are more than twice as likely as non-streaming households to have made a change to their service level with their pay TV provider (25% vs. 12%).

However, while streamers are more likely than non-streamers to downgrade their level of traditional pay TV service (9% vs. 6%), they are also more likely to upgrade their level of service (16% vs. 6%). Moreover, service upgrades are considerably more common than downgrades among these streaming households.

"These findings suggest that streaming is contributing to an overall rise in consumer appetite - and demand - for video content, instead of simply stealing a finite share of Pay TV programming," wrote TNS Vice President Frank Perazzini. "Growth in the frequency of service upgrades is being driven almost entirely by households that also consume streaming video, leading to stronger ARPU performance by cable, satellite, and fiber television providers."