Ten leading pay television services in the United States lost 663,000 subscribers between them in the second quarter of 2016. The second quarter is generally a weak season for television subscriptions but some operators managed to reduce their customer losses. The informitv Multiscreen Index reports that these ten services lost 437,100 television customers in twelve months, which was less than 0.5% of their combined subscriber base.
AT&T is the largest pay-television group in the Multiscreen Index, with 37.82 million television customers, with 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.
Comcast is the largest single service, reducing its television customer loss for the quarter to 4,000, ending the period with 22.40 million television subscribers.
Charter became 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.
Optimum and Suddenlink lost 2,000 and 23,000 respectively. Both are now owned by Altice, which now has 10.29 million subscribers worldwide.
| Service | Change quarter |
Subscribers m |
|---|---|---|
| -663,000 | 88.96 | |
| Comcast | -4,000 | 22.40 |
| DIRECTV | 342,000 | 20.45 |
| Charter Spectrum | -152,000 | 16.93 |
| DISH Network | -281,000 | 13.59 |
| AT&T U-verse | -391,000 | 4.84 |
| Verizon Fios | -1,226,000 | 4.64 |
| Optimum | -2,000 | 2.58 |
| Frontier | 1,085,000 | 1.63 |
| Suddenlink | -23,000 | 1.06 |
| Mediacom | -11,000 | 0.84 |
“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.”
“DIRECTV was the only company in the top 10 to report organic subscriber growth, although that was largely at the expense of AT&T U-verse,” added informitv analyst Dr Sue Farrell. “It’s been a turbulent quarter with some large losses but the real story is one of consolidation.”
The informitv Multiscreen Index tracks subscriber numbers for 100 leading pay-TV services worldwide. Quarterly reports are available for individuals and enterprises can access current and historic subscriber data for all services.