The second quarter of this year has seen the US pay-TV industry’s worst ever subscriber drain, with about 941,000 subscribers walking away from cable, satellite and IPTV.
An analysis from MoffetNathanson’s Craig Moffett shows that satellite TV providers lost the most in terms of sheer numbers, accounting for about half of the decline at 441,000 — though that translates to just 2.3% of the base. Cable operators lost 221,000 video subs in Q2, a not-bad 1.1% year-on-year loss. But the telcos had the worst outing in terms of percentages, shedding 279,000 subs, or 11.6%, of their customers.
This all translates into the fastest rate of decline on record, with churn inching up to 2.7% from 2.5% last quarter.
Meanwhile, MoffetNathanson’s also found that not all of those lost pay-TV subscribers are turning to Netflix and other over-the-top (OTT) companies, however: the conversion rate is steady at 50%. Still, Moffett estimates that Sling TV added 89,000 subs in Q2, DirecTV Now added 80,000, and PlayStation Vue, Hulu Live and YouTube TV brought in about 300,000 between them.
And going forward? “There is, unfortunately, no roadmap,” Moffett wrote.
This all translates into the fastest rate of decline on record, with churn inching up to 2.7% from 2.5% last quarter.
Meanwhile, MoffetNathanson’s also found that not all of those lost pay-TV subscribers are turning to Netflix and other over-the-top (OTT) companies, however: the conversion rate is steady at 50%. Still, Moffett estimates that Sling TV added 89,000 subs in Q2, DirecTV Now added 80,000, and PlayStation Vue, Hulu Live and YouTube TV brought in about 300,000 between them.
And going forward? “There is, unfortunately, no roadmap,” Moffett wrote.
