The drop in pay-TV subscribers in the US slowed to 119,000 in the third quarter, from a loss of 945,000 subscribers in the same period of 2019, according to figures from Leichtman Research. Losses at satellite, cable and telco providers were offset by over 1 million customers added by OTT TV providers in the quarter.
The figures represent about 95 percent of the pay-TV market and include only publicly reported providers. In total, they had 82.6 million subscribers at the end of September. That includes 44.3 million cable customers, down by 373,000 from June; 22.6 million satellite TV customers, down by 777,000 in the three months; and 8.0 million TV customers at telecom operators, down by 4,000.
The publicly reported online TV providers counted 7.7 million subscribers, an increase of 1.035 million from Q2 thanks largely to strong growth at Hulu. The market researcher noted that Hulu's live TV service is now the fifth-largest pay-TV provider in the US, with 4.1 million customers. Furthermore, the Leichtman figures do not include YouTube TV, which is estimated to have over 3 million subscribers, including more than 1 million added in 2020 alone.
Leichtman said the overall market benefited from the return of live sports in Q3. This was the fewest quarterly subscriber losses since Q1 2018.
