Satellite TV Subs Continued Slide in Q2, Telco TV Trends Improve, Says LRG
DirecTV and Dish services lost more subscribers (478,000) in Q2 than in any previous quarter, and the top six cable companies lost about 276,000 video subscribers vs. a loss of about 190,000 subscribers in Q2 2017, Leichtman Research Group reported…
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Monday. Top phone providers’ video subscriber deficit narrowed to about 45,000 vs. a loss of 270,000, for the fewest net losses for telcos since Q3 2015, said LRG. AT&T U-verse had its first net video additions, 23,000, since Q1 2015. Though the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S., with 95 percent of the market, lost about 415,000 net video subscribers in Q2, the number was “the fewest net losses in the traditionally weak second quarter since 2014,” said analyst Bruce Leichtman, comparing it to a pro forma loss of about 660,000 in Q2 2017. DirecTV and Sling TV added about 383,000 subscribers in Q2, up from 270,000 net adds in the prior-year quarter, for a total of 4.2 million subscribers, helping to offset overall pay-TV losses as consumers opt for less expensive services and providers change strategies. Of the top pay-TV providers’ 91.3 million subscribers, the top six cable companies have about 47.4 million, 30.6 million are satellite-TV customers, phone companies have 9.1 million and top internet-delivered pay-TV services have 4.2 million subscribers, said LRG.