Pay TV Lost 385,000 Subscribers Last Year The thirteen largest pay-TV providers in the United States saw a net loss of 385,000 video subscribers in 2015, compared to a loss of about 150,000 subscribers in 2014, and 100,000 subscribers in 2013. That's according to the latest date from Leichtman Research, which notes that the top nine cable companies alone lost 345,000 video subscribers last year. That's notably better than the 1,215,000 subscribers the cable industry lost in 2014.

As noted previously , that's thanks in part to cable winning back customers from telcoTV and satellite thanks to improved set top boxes but also faster broadband bundles being offered in markets with limited broadband competition. In fact while Leichtman notes that satellite TV providers added 86,000 subscribers in 2015, traditional satellite connections dropped by 450,000 subscribers last year if you exclude Dish's Sling TV additions. Meanwhile telco TV operations like Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse collectively lost 125,000 video subscribers in 2015 -- compared to a gain of about 1,050,000 net additions one year earlier. All told, the top cable providers still lay claim to 49.0 million video subscribers, while satellite TV companies have about 33.7 million subscribers, and the top telephone companies have roughly 11.5 million subscribers. "2015 marked the third consecutive year for pay-TV industry net losses, yet the total number of subscribers for major pay-TV providers (including DISH's Sling TV) has declined by less than one million since the industry peaked in 1Q 2012," said Bruce Leichtman, working hard to find a bright side. "The top cable providers cumulatively had their best year since 2006, and had about 870,000 fewer losses than in 2014. Telcos had about 1,170,000 fewer net additions than in 2014, and had their worst year since they began providing video services in 2006." Not only does pay TV continue to slowly lose ground, it isn't growing alongside traditional housing growth -- meaning millions of new homes that aren't deciding to sign up for traditional cable. Among users that do use traditional cable TV, Satellite and telco TV customers are however flocking back to cable, which is now bundling TV and broadband for significantly less than broadband alone. Not only does pay TV continue to slowly lose ground, it isn't growing alongside traditional housing growth -- meaning millions of new homes that aren't deciding to sign up for traditional cable. Among users that do use traditional cable TV, Satellite and telco TV customers are however flocking back to cable, which is now bundling TV and broadband for significantly less than broadband alone.







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Most recommended from 14 comments



syslock

Premium Member

join:2007-02-03

La La Land 3 recommendations syslock Premium Member waaa People are tired of paying for bundles of garbage tv.

People want to watch content on their own time, of their own choosing,

without commercials.



The sales guys at the big box shopping warehouse store are always saying:

"Sign up for our blah blah blah package. "

Nope. Cut the cord 3 years ago. Been really happy since then.

"We have no cords" yep and I have more cash in my pockets at the end of the month too.

maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 3 recommendations maartena Premium Member bundled discounts, population. And what this study does not provide is the bundled discounts that people get.... where TV+Internet is cheaper than just Internet. There's quite a few people on this forum that have this and do not use the TV portion, and there are probably hundreds of thousands more across the USA.



Also, the US population grows with an average of 2 million per year, looking at the 2000, 2010 censuses and yearly estimates. Of course the new population are firstly babies that don't buy TV, and secondly immigrants that may or may not but TV, but track back 20-25 years and you will also see that there are similar numbers of people who venture out on their own for the first time and start renting or buying. On average, the US builds around 750,000 houses per year. (In slower economic years its closer to 500,000, in good economic years its over 1 million, in 2014 we built more than 1 million houses)



If the cable industry had NO problems, I would expect a continued growth of at least 500,000 a year, taking into account that 250,000 of those new houses are not subscribing to TV. A gain of half a million per year would actually be "status quo", maintaining the house vs cable sub ratio. Instead, they are losing customers. We all know who they are losing them to, as the need for entertainment is still there and Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are racking up subscribers.



The Pay-TV industry MUST realize by now (and the evidence of smaller bundles and such seem to support that) that customers don't want to pay for 200 channels anymore and only want to pay for a small amount of channels they can choose themselves. Of course eventually the world will go to "on demand", something a cable network CAN provide in high quality, but to get there were are going to have to break doen channel bundles first. No more "all or nothing" Viacom deals.