US multichannel video ‘plumbs new depths’ in 2020
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| 10 March 2021
With virtual subscription momentum slowing in the fourth quarter of the year, traditional US multichannel video hit a new low in 2020 with a decline of nearly 7.2 million subscriptions, according to estimates from Kagan.
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The media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence observed that virtual multichannel services had blunted the overall erosion of people taking a package of live linear channels, but the estimated 2.7 million new subscribers for such services - that increasingly resemble the traditional services being displaced – were found to have fallen short of offsetting cable, telco and satellite defections.

Losses for those traditional cable, telco and satellite providers slowed in the fourth quarter but Kagan warned that the full-year decline underscored that the impacts of the pandemic amplified cord cutting instead of insulating an industry built around home entertainment.

The combined penetration of traditional and virtual subscriptions, which accounts for the total households in the US taking a package of live, linear channels, dropped below 67% at the end of the year. The percentage of households in the US with a traditional multichannel subscription dropped to less than 57%.The fourth quarter offered an overall improvement in traditional subscription losses at 1.5 million, but the virtual segment did not maintain the surprising momentum from the third quarter, tallying what Kagan described as a “tepid” estimated gain of 223,000 to finish the year at nearly 12.5 million subscriptions.

“Americans continue to leave traditional video services in droves, with 6.8 million households cutting the cord in 2020,” said Tony Lenoir, senior analyst with Kagan.