U.S. Video Subscription Business is Quite Mature

The U.S. video subscription business, like other network-based products such as voice and messaging, is a mature business, as seen in the number of net new customers the whole business is getting. 

It isn't getting many new customers, with most of the change consisting of consumers switching service providers. In the third quarter of 2012, U.S. video service providers lost 127,000 customers, overall. 

DirectTV gained 67,000 customers. Time Warner Cable lost 140,000; Comcast 117,000 customers. Cablevision shrunk by about 10,000 customers.

Charter shed 73,000 customers. So if those cable operators lost 359,000 customers, while DirecTV gained 67,000, there are 302,000 customers who went someplace other than DirecTV and Dish. 

Most of them must have gone to AT&T and Verizon, the two largest U.S. telco providers.