Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has found that the top 13 US pay-TV providers (with around a 95% combined market share) lost around 385,000 net subscribers in 2015, compared to 150,000 in 2014 and 100,000 in 2013. In total, these companies represent 94.2 million subscribers: 49 million through cable companies, 33.7 million via satellite companies and 11.5 million subscribing to IPTV.
Cable subscribers fell about 345,000 (compared to 1.2 million in 2014); satellite was down 86,000 (compared to a gain of 20,000); and IPTV lost 125,000 subscribers, compared to a gain of over 1 million in 2014. This was the first ever IPTV subscriber decline in the USA.
2015 was the third straight year of net losses in the pay-TV industry, although the total subscriber loss since the industry’s peak in Q1’12 has been less than 1 million.
