The largest pay-TV providers in the U.S., representing about 92% of the market, lost about 1,925,000 net video subscribers in the second quarter 2022, compared to a pro forma net loss of 1,235,000 one year earlier.
That’s according to newly released data from Leichtman Research Group, which found that the top pay-TV providers now account for about 72.2 million subscribers.
The top seven cable companies possess roughly 39.5 million video subscribers, other traditional pay-TV services boasting about 25.5 million subscribers, and the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services have about 7.2 million subscribers.
Leitchtman also finds that the top cable providers had a net loss of about 950,000 video subscribers in Q2, compared to a loss of about 590,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2021.
Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 710,000 subscribers in Q2 ’22, slightly higher than the loss of about 700,000 subscribers in Q2 2021. At the same time, top publicly reporting vMVPDs had a net loss of about 265,000 subscribers in Q2. That’s particularly discouraging, as there was a gain of about 55,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 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. “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.”
By provider, the numbers are rather bleak across the board, with Xfinity and Spectrum customer rolls shrinking. DirecTV also experienced a significant year-over-year decline in its subscribers.
| Pay-TV Providers | Subscribers at end of 2Q 2022 | Net Adds 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) |
