Releasing the most thorough tally of pay TV’s biggest quarterly customer losses ever, SNL Kagan said that cable, satellite and telco operators lost 812,000 video subscribers in the second quarter.
Earlier reports clearly indicated that the second quarter of this year surpassed the record attrition of the second quarter of 2015 — Leitchman Research, for example, said that the leading 11 operators lost 655,000 video customers during the three-month period.
SNL Kagan’s count goes beyond just the top pay-TV companies, however, measuring losses for smaller cable systems.
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 estimates 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.
Related articles:
Cord cutters are least satisfied with their streaming service, survey finds
U.S. broadband expansion slows to 15-year low, Leichtman says
Top pay-TV companies lost 665K subs in worst Q2 ever, according to official Leichtman tally