US pay TV market lost 612,000 subscribers in Q1 2017

US Pay-TV market in the United States 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%) amounts 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 are the only services show a growing trend with a base of 2.4 million subscribers (+ 6%).

According to Dataxis, 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 the second place with 23% of total subscribers and Charter completes the podium with 17% of the market share.