The largest pay-TV providers in the US, accounting for around 95 percent of the market, lost some 1.495 million net video subscribers in 2017, nearly double the 760,000 net losses posted in 2016, according to a report by Leichtman Research. The top pay-TV providers had around 92.2 million subscribers at the end of December, with the top six cable companies having some 48.1 million video subscribers, satellite TV services around 31.5 million subscribers, followed by the top telephone companies with 9.2 million subscribers and the top internet-delivered pay-TV services with nearly 3.4 million subscribers.
The report found that the top six cable companies lost about 660,000 video subscribers in 2017 compared to a loss of about 275,000 subscribers the previous year. Satellite TV services had a particularly bad year, posting net losses of around 1.550 million, compared to a loss of 40,000 subscribers in 2016, led by DirecTV with 554,000 losses against a gain of 1.228 million in 2016.
The top telephone providers lost about 885,000 video subscribers last year compared to a loss of about 1.590 million subscribers in 2016. Traditional pay-TV services (not including internet-delivered services) lost about 3.095 million subscribers in 2017, compared to 1.905 million net losses in 2016, while the top internet-delivered services added about 1.600 million subscribers in 2017 compared to 1.145 million net adds in 2016.
