The leading television subscription services in the United States lost more subscribers in the first quarter of 2023 than in any previous quarter. The subscriber losses were not only across traditional cable and satellite platforms but also affected some of the leading online multichannel services.
Comcast lost 614,000 cable television subscribers, which was almost a 4% decline, taking its total to 15.53 million. Charter lost 241,000 subscribers, down to 14.91 million. Altice lost 60,500, with a total of 2.48 million.
DIRECTV shed 350,000 subscribers, or almost 4.5% of its base, which fell to 12.75 million. DISH TV lost 318,000 satellite customers, leading it with 7.10 million.
Verizon Fios lost 76,000 telco television customers, down to 3.23 million.
Between them, these six leading service providers that report figures lost 1.70 million subscribers, although they still had a total of almost 56 million television customers.
Significantly, online multichannel services also reported subscriber losses.
Among online television services, Hulu Live TV lost 100,000, for a total of 4.40 million, Sling TV shed 234,000 to 2.10 million, and Fubo lost 160,000, leaving it with 1.29 million.
These three online services lost almost half a million subscribers in three months.
Taken together, that led to a loss of 2.16 million television subscribers across these leading services, or about 3.4% of their subscriber base.
However, between them they still have 63.78 million television subscribers, out of around 74 million homes that subscribe to television services in the United States.