The top 10 pay-TV services in the United States lost over 400,000 digital television subscribers in the second quarter of 2015.
Informitv’s Multiscreen Index shows nine out of ten platforms lost subscribers with the decline in numbers wiping out the small gain made earlier in the year.
The biggest losses came at satellite platform DirecTV, where numbers fell by 133,000 to 20.28 million. This was offset by gains from the PanAmericana operation, increasing the DirecTV group total by 34,000 to 33.14 million.
DISH Network lost 81,000 subscribers, after including its Sling TV service, which had 169,000 subscribers at the end of March, ending June with a total of 13.93 million.
MSOs Comcast and Time Warner Cable both lost subscribers.
Verizon was the only operator to gain, adding 26,000 television subscribers, although that represented the smallest quarterly increase since the service launched.
“With regular reports of television subscriber losses, it appears that many of these services are struggling to maintain customer numbers in a mature competitive market,” says Dr William Cooper, the editor of the informitv Multiscreen Index. “The figures must be viewed in perspective The overall loss is less than 0.5% of their combined subscriber base.”
The Multiscreen Index tracks trends in television services and provides an accessible compilation of top 10 tables and charts showing annual and quarterly changes in subscriber numbers.
Residential digital television subscriber numbers at the end of June 2015 for the 10 leading pay-television services in the United States
Service | Platform | Change | Change | Subscribers |
---|---|---|---|---|
year | quarter | m | ||
Comcast | Cable | -151,000 | -69,000 | 22.31 |
DIRECTV | Satellite | 48,000 | -133,000 | 20.28 |
DISH Network | Satellite | -121,000 | -81,000 | 13.93 |
Time Warner Cable | Cable | -237,000 | -45,000 | 10.77 |
AT&T U-verse | Telco | 115,000 | -23,000 | 5.95 |
Verizon FiOS | Telco | 346,000 | 26,000 | 5.77 |
Charter | Cable | -46,000 | -33,000 | 4.12 |
Cablevision | Cable | -134,000 | -16,000 | 2.64 |
Mediacom | Cable | -40,000 | -12,000 | 0.88 |
Suddenlink | Cable | -22,400 | -14,600 | 0.86 |
-242,400 | -400,600 | 87.51 | ||
Source: informitv Multiscreen Index