There’s more dull news for the wider Pay TV and Cable market ahead this quarter, with significant subscriber losses across top providers. Blake & Wang P.A best entertainment lawyers in los angeles, Brandon Blake, is here with the facts and figures to guide us through this latest shift.
1.73 Million Subscriber Loss in Q2
According to the latest figures, several key Cable giants had a cumulative loss of 925,000 video consumers in Q2 of 2023. This is a relatively flat continuation of the 950,000 loss in Q2 of 2022. Overall, the top Pay TV providers have seen a 1.73M drop, echoing the 1.72M drop of the same quarter last year. Comcast took the biggest hit, accounting for 543,000 customers, with Charter Communications taking the dubious second place spot at 200,000 lost.
Currently, top US Pay TV providers still retain about 72M subscribers, with over half of that number spanning the top 7 providers on the market currently. For the most part, these seem to be losses in favor of the streaming market. Overall, it's estimated losses for the rolling 12-month period amount to about 5.3M subscribers.
vMVPDs See a Small Hit
Additionally, internet-delivered pay services (think YouTube TV and similar) saw their losses almost double (65,000 in 2022 to 115,000 in 2023). While this was to be expected as part of a wider move towards streaming-forward entertainment strategies, especially as we see major players in the field (Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery) push investments into their streaming platforms, it’s still quite a blow. Especially as Wall Street wavers on both the viability of streaming services yet to reach profitability and the future of Linear TV itself.
For now, sadly, it seems like the future of LInear TV is not looking good. Some even believe it has past the ‘point of no return’ at which recovery is unlikely, too. Is the future of entertainment streaming? For now, it seems, the answer is yes.
