Pay-TV operators will lose $1B in revenue this year thanks to cord cutting, consulting firm says

U.S. pay-TV operators stand to lose around $1 billion in revenue as an estimated 800,000 customers ditch video service over the next 12 months, predicts consulting firm cg42.

The company surveyed 1,119 U.S. pay-TV customers. It estimated that they pay, on average, around $104 a month – or $1,248 per year – for video service.

“The consumer is discovering they don’t need the mean, evil cable company to get the content that they want, and they can get it for a better deal,” said Steve Beck, managing partner at cg42, in a statement.

In August, SNL Kagan reported that cable, satellite and telco operators lost 812,000 video subscribers in the second quarter.

The cable sector actually reduced its year-over-year losses by 13.6 percent, SNL Kagan said, with only 298,000 defections in the second quarter. 

With Dish Network’s massive losses offsetting DirecTV’s growth, the two satellite operators lost 26,000 customers in the period. That left most of the quarterly blood loss to the telco sector, which has lost 1 million subscribers since the middle of 2015, SNL Kagan said. 

The research company estimated that Dish’s IP-based Sling TV service now has 764,000 customers. Discounting Sling TV’s growth, SNL Kagan believes pay-TV lost 853,000 customers in the 12 months preceding the second quarter.

For more:
- read this Wall Street Journal story

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