The US pay-TV market started 2017 with a slight decline.
According to Dataxis, the total number of subscribers reached 100.3 million for the first quarter of 2017, which represent a fall of -0.61% (-612,000 subscribers) compared to Q4 2016. This trend of the market shows an erosion from several quarters.
Compared to Q4 2016, Dataxis analysis shows different variations between different pay-TV technologies: Cable remained relatively stable (down from -0.17%), amounting to 58.4 million subscribers, whereas DTH lost subscribers (-1.32%) and amounted to 33.2 million subscribers.
IPTV confirmed a clear downward trend with 6.3 million subscribers (-3.1%). On the other hand, linear OTT pay-TV services were the only services show a growing trend with a base of 2.4 million subscribers (+ 6%).
According to Dataxis, the US pay-TV market is dominated by cable TV, which represents more than half of the subscribers. DTH accounts for one-third of the market, whereas IPTV represents 6% and linear OTT doubled its share compared to last year, reaching 2% of the market.
Dataxis underlines that the pay-TV market is led by AT&T Group (DirecTV USA, AT&T, DirecTV Now), with a 25% share. Comcast holds second place with 23% of total subscribers and Charter completes the podium with 17% of the market share.