Major US pay-TV providers trim Q1 losses
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 20 May 2021
In what is actually a year-on-year improvement, US pay-TV market lost 1.895 million customers in the first quarter of 2021 says study from the Leichtman Research Group.
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In addition to improving slightly on the 1.955 million losses in Q1 2020, the analysis of the performance of the largest pay-TV providers in the US – representing about 95% of the market – found that the pay-TV providers now account for about 78.7 million subscribers – with the top seven cable companies having 43.1 million video subscribers. Other traditional pay-TV services such as AT&T Premium TV and DISH TV generated 28.869 million.drew about 28.9 million subscribers, and the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services had about 6.7 million subscribers.

Overall, over the course of the last year, the top pay-TV providers had a net loss of about 4.790 million subscribers, compared with a loss of about 5.125 million over the prior year.

Most corporate blood was spilled in the cable sector where the leading providers in the analysis were found to have suffered a net loss of about 775,000 video subscribers in Q1 2021, compared with a loss of about 595,000 subscribers a year ago. Net cable losses in Q1 2021 were more than in any previous quarter.
Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 865,000 subscribers in Q1 2021, down substantially on the loss of 1.150 million reported a year earlier.

And just in the wake of its decision to divest TV and video activity into a merged company with Discovery, the AT&T Premium TV service, had 620,000 net losses in Q1 2021, 277,000 fewer than in the same period of 2020. The LRG report also found premier vMVPDs had a net loss of about 255,000 subscribers in Q1 2021 – compared with a loss of about 210,000 subscribers in Q1 2020.