Major U.S. pay TV providers lost ~1,230,000 subscribers in 2Q 2021
Tuesday, August 17th, 2021
Major Pay-TV Providers Lost About 1,230,000 Subscribers in 2Q 2021
- Pay-TV Net Losses Were About 275,000 Fewer Than in 2Q 2020
DURHAM, NH — Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. – representing about 95% of the market – lost about 1,230,000 net video subscribers in 2Q 2021, compared to a pro forma net loss of about 1,505,000 in 2Q 2020.
The top pay-TV providers now account for about 77.6 million subscribers – with the top seven cable companies having 42.6 million video subscribers, other traditional pay-TV services having about 28.2 million subscribers, and the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services having about 6.8 million subscribers.
Key findings for the quarter include:
- Top cable providers had a net loss of about 590,000 video subscribers in 2Q 2021 – compared to a loss of about 505,000 subscribers in 2Q 2020
- Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 700,000 subscribers in 2Q 2021 – compared to a loss of about 1,045,000 subscribers in 2Q 2020
- AT&T Premium TV had 473,000 net losses in 2Q 2021 – compared to 887,000 net losses in 2Q 2020
- Top publicly reporting vMVPDs added about 55,000 subscribers in 2Q 2021 – compared to a gain of about 45,000 subscribers in 2Q 2020
“Pay-TV net losses of 1,230,000 in 2Q 2021 were about 275,000 fewer than in 2Q 2020 on a pro forma basis,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Over the past year, top pay-TV providers had a net loss of about 4,520,000 subscribers, compared to a loss of about 5,460,000 over the prior year.”
Subscribers at Net Adds Pay-TV Providers End of 2Q 2021 in 2Q 2021 -------------------------- -------------- ----------- Cable Companies Comcast 18,956,000 (399,000) Charter 16,012,000 (50,000) Cox* 3,530,000 (60,000) Altice** 2,870,500 (48,300) Mediacom 611,000 (15,000) Atlantic Broadband 309,242 (4,349) Cable One** 287,000 (11,000) Total Top Cable 42,575,742 (587,649) Other Traditional Services AT&T Premium TV^ 15,412,000 (473,000) DISH TV (DBS) 8,554,000 (132,000) Verizon FiOS (Telco) 3,782,000 (63,000) Frontier (Telco)* 423,000 (30,000) Total Top Other Traditional 28,171,000 (698,000) Internet-Delivered (vMVPD) Hulu + Live TV 3,700,000 (100,000) Sling TV 2,439,000 65,000 fuboTV 681,721 91,291 Total Top vMVPD^^ 6,820,721 56,291 Total Top Providers 77,567,463 (1,229,358)
Sources: The Companies and Leichtman Research Group, Inc.
* LRG estimate
** Includes recent acquisitions and LRG pro forma estimates of net adds
^ AT&T Premium TV includes DIRECTV, U-verse, and AT&T TV
^^ vMVPD does not include YouTube TV or Philo, as neither regularly report results.
Company subscriber counts may not solely represent residential households
Top pay-TV providers represent approximately 95% of all subscribers
Net additions reflect pro forma results from system sales and acquisitions, reporting adjustments, and changes to the list of top providers – therefore, comparing totals in this release to prior releases will not produce accurate findings
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