U.S. Linear Video Losses Steepen

Though there are changes of market share for every product category, the losses of legacy product accounts and revenues continues unabated in most markets. Consider video services, one of the newer telco products.

U.S. linear subscription TV providers lost at least 1,530,000 net video subscribers in the second quarter of  2019, compared to a net loss of about 420,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2018, according to Leichtman Research Group. 

Satellite suppliers took a bigger hit than fixed network providers, and DirecTV took the lion’s share of losses.  Satellite TV services lost about 855,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2019, compared to a net loss of about 480,000 subscribers in the same quarter of  2018. 

Video Providers

Subscribers 2Q 2019

Net Adds 2Q 2019

Cable Companies
Comcast	21,641,000	(224,000)
Charter	16,320,000	(141,000)
Cox*	3,940,000	(40,000)
Altice	3,276,500	(20,800)
Mediacom	747,000	(17,000)
Cable ONE	308,493	(12,118)
Atlantic Broadband**	307,261	(345)

Total Top Cable

46,540,254

(455,263)

Satellite
DirecTV	17,901,000	(778,000)
DISH TV	9,560,000	(79,000)

Total DBS

27,461,000

(857,000)

Phone Companies
Verizon FiOS	4,346,000	(52,000)
AT&T U-verse^	3,704,000	0
Frontier	738,000	(46,000)

Total Top Phone

8,788,000

(98,000)

Internet-Delivered (vMVPD)
Sling TV	2,472,000	48,000
DIRECTV NOW	1,340,000	(168,000)

Total Top vMVPD^^

3,812,000

(120,000)

Total Top Providers

86,601,254

(1,530,263)

The direction of change is not unexpected, by virtually anyone. Perhaps the magnitude of change is not surprising, either. Virtually every legacy product sold by service providers is diminishing in volume, creating a need for creation of new products and revenue streams.