Six months ago (Vol 24 No 11), the Leichtman Research Group published figures showing a drop in US pay-TV users, with subscribers moving to internet-delivered services. At that time, the biggest providers in each group were still seeing subscriber gains. Now, however, all of the traditional providers are seeing losses, with a further 893,000 leaving in Q2.
In contrast, internet-delivered services gained 237,000 subscribers. The top cable and telephone companies lost fewer users than in Q2’16 (Cable: 188,000 v 225,000, Telephone: 268,000 v 550,000), but satellite services saw a drop of 437,000 compared with a gain of 15,000 a year ago. The satellite company losses were partially offset by the success of their internet delivered brands.
