Ten of the leading pay-TV services in the United States have between them lost 663,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2016.Some of the operators have managed to stem the losses in what is traditionally a weak quarter for subscription television. The informitv Multiscreen Index is reporting the ten services lost 437,100 television customers in 12 months, which was less than 0.5% of their combined subscriber base.
AT&T is a leading example. The largest pay-TV group in the index boasts 37.82 million TV customers, including 25.30 million in the United States. Its satellite subsidiary DIRECTV gained 342,000 television customers in the United States, while its U verse telco television service lost 391,000.
“Mergers and acquisitions have reshaped the top 10 pay-television services in the United States,” said Dr William Cooper, the editor of the informitv Multiscreen Index. “Our index shows how new players rank and tracks the overall subscriber trends.”
Comcast is the largest single service, reducing its TV customer loss for the quarter to 4,000, ending the period with 22.40 million television subscribers.
Charter is now the third largest provider, following the merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, with a total of 16.93 million television subscribers and a quarterly loss of 152,000.
Verizon Fios television subscribers declined by 1,226,000, following the transfer of some markets to Frontier, which gained 1,085,000 and entered the top 10, although organic losses were 112,000.
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.
