Major U.S. pay TV providers lost ~1,925,000 subscribers in 2Q 2022

Major Pay-TV Providers Lost About 1,925,000 Subscribers in 2Q 2022

DURHAM, NH — Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. – representing about 92% of the market – lost about 1,925,000 net video subscribers in 2Q 2022, compared to a pro forma net loss of 1,235,000 in 2Q 2021.

The top pay-TV providers now account for about 72.2 million subscribers – with the top seven cable companies having about 39.5 million video subscribers, other traditional pay-TV services having about 25.5 million subscribers, and the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services having about 7.2 million subscribers.

Key findings for the quarter include:

• Top cable providers had a net loss of about 950,000 video subscribers in 2Q 2022 – compared to a loss of about 590,000 subscribers in 2Q 2021
• Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 710,000 subscribers in 2Q 2022 – compared to a loss of about 700,000 subscribers in 2Q 2021
• Top publicly reporting vMVPDs had a net loss of about 265,000 subscribers in 2Q 2022 – compared to a gain of about 55,000 subscribers in 2Q 2021

“The second quarter of 2022 marked the second consecutive quarter with over 1.9 million net pay-TV losses,” 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 5,425,000 subscribers, compared to a net loss of about 4,550,000 over the prior year.”

                             Subscribers at     Net Adds
Pay-TV Providers             End of 2Q 2022   in 2Q 2022
---------------------------  --------------  -----------
Cable Companies
 Comcast                         17,144,000    (520,000)
 Charter                         15,495,000    (226,000)
 Cox*                             3,230,000     (80,000)
 Altice                           2,574,200     (84,500)
 Mediacom*                          540,000     (15,000)
 Breezeline**                       332,312      (6,709)
 Cable One**                        221,000     (17,000)
Total Top Cable                  39,536,512    (949,209)

Other Traditional Services
 DIRECTV^                        13,900,000    (400,000)
 DISH TV (DBS)                    7,791,000    (202,000)
 Verizon Fios (Telco)             3,479,000     (87,000)
 Frontier (Telco)*                  343,000     (20,000)
Total Top Other Traditional      25,513,000    (709,000)

Internet-Delivered (vMVPD)
 Hulu + Live TV                   4,000,000    (100,000)
 Sling TV                         2,197,000     (55,000)
 fuboTV                             946,735    (109,510)
Total Top vMVPD^^                 7,143,735    (264,510)

Total Top Providers              72,193,247  (1,922,719)

Sources: The Companies and Leichtman Research Group, Inc.
* LRG estimate
** LRG estimate of pro forma net adds
^ LRG estimate, includes DIRECTV, U-verse, and DIRECTV Stream
^^ List does not include YouTube TV or Philo, as neither regularly report results. YouTube noted in a blog post that the TV service had “5 million subscribers and trialers” at the end of June 2022.
Company subscriber counts may not solely represent residential households
Top pay-TV providers represent approximately 92% 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