What They Say
5.1 million US consumer households joined the cord-cutting trend in 2020. AT&T was the biggest loser , while Dish Network saw less of a decline. Charter actually added some 56K subscribers as it rolled out high speed internet.
Combined, the Big Four operators lost 2.63 million customers in 2019. In 2020, they lost 5.06 million subscribers.
NextTV said that the pace of decline was driven by a steep drop in the AT&T DirecTV satellite service drop.
In contrast, Digital TV Research said that the number of pay TV subscribers in Canada and the US will fall by 43 million from 116 million in the peak year of 2010 to 74 million in 2026. The US will lose 41 million, with Canada down by nearly 2 million.
Pay TV penetration will drop from 90.5% in 2010 to 53.6% by 2026. Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said:
“The worst of the cord-cutting is over. Declines will be lower from 2021, falling by 16 million in total between 2020 and 2026. “Only” 5 million digital cable TV subscribers will be lost. Satellite TV will fall by 7.5 million and IPTV by 3.4 million subscribers.”
Pay TV revenues peaked in 2015 at $111 billion. Revenues will fall by $49 billion to $62 billion in 2026.
What We Think
Separately there have been reports that AT&T is very close to selling a substantial minority stake in DirecTV, U-verse and AT&T TV to TPG, a private equity firm. (BR)
