MONTEREY, CA – The legacy multichannel universe in the U.S. lost a record 976,000 U.S. pay TV subscribers in the quarter ended June 30, 2017, but that number is better than expected, says new research by Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Overall, traditional multichannel subscriptions dropped below 96.1 million in the second quarter, down 1.8 million since year-end 2016. Adding the top two virtual service providers (VSPs) affiliated with legacy multichannel distributors –DISH Network’s Sling TV and AT&T’s DirecTV Now – lifts the combined total subscriptions to a package of live linear channels and on-demand content to 98 million.
Other highlights from the Second Quarter U.S. Multichannel Subscriber report include:
– Cable operators lost 246,000 total video customers. Following the sizable first-quarter drop, total losses at the mid-year mark are up 55.6% annually;
– Traditional satellite services took a hit in the second quarter, posting an estimated net loss of 443,000 subscriptions to retreat below the 33 million threshold for the first time since 2010;
– Total traditional video subs on the telco platform dropped to 10.9 million, declining 10.9% annually. With AT&T emphasizing DirecTV as its primary delivery platform, U-verse accounted for two thirds of the decline;
– Based on figures compiled from U.S. Census reports, a calculated 75.8% of the potential residential universe subscribe to a legacy multichannel product in the second-quarter.
