The largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. lost roughly 465,000 net video subscribers in the third quarter, a sizable jump from the same period of last year, new findings from Leichtman Research Group show.
The providers, who represent 96% of the market, experienced a pro forma net loss of about 385,000 during the third quarter of 2022.
This, LRG says, means the top pay-TV providers now account for some 71.5 million
subscribers — with the top seven cable companies having about 34.9 million video subscribers, other traditional pay-TV services having 21.9 million subscribers, and the top Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services having 14.7 million subscribers.
That latter figure is key to understanding the cable TV consumer trends impacting America: vMVPDs added some 1,325,000 subscribers in Q3, presumably because of the National Football League, rising from 1.3 million a year earlier. This impacted the overall number declines seeing across the cable TV industry.
“Similar to recent years, pay-TV net losses in the third quarter were more modest than in the first two quarters of the year due to the strength of sports on Internet-delivered vMVPD services,” said LRG President Bruce Leichtman, the principal analyst for the report.
Traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 1.8 million subscribers in Q3. Top cable providers had a net loss of about 1,015,000 video subscribers in the quarter, rising from 985,000 subscribers.
11/19/23, 11:23
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** LRG estimate, includes DIRECTV, U-verse, and DIRECTV Stream
^ LRG estimate
^^ Includes LRG estimate for non-residential subscribers
Company subscriber counts may not solely represent residential
households
Top pay-TV providers represent approximately 96% of all subscribers
Net additions reflect pro forma results from system sales and
acquisitions, reporting adjustments, and changes to the list of top
providers – therefore, comparing totals in this release to prior releases
will not produce accurate findings
