The informitv “Multiscreen Index” was released on Monday, and indicates a slowing in worldwide pay TV subscriber growth so far in 2017. That will, of course, surprise few readers who’ve kept up with the topic.
“Figures for the first quarter show the lowest rate of worldwide subscriber growth we have seen,” William Cooper, editor of the index, observes. “There is still growth in the Asia Pacific region but at a lower rate than previously.”
The 100 leading TV services covered in the report added 3.46 million subscribers between them in the first quarter of 2017, which was an increase of 0.7 percent. In the same period in 2016, the increase was 6.9 million, or 1.68 percent. The report shows small gains with the Americas up by 0.85 million, Europe, Middle East, and Africa up by 0.21 million, and Asia Pacific gaining 2.39 million.
The top 10 services in the United States saw total losses of 559,000 subscribers, according to the analysis, with only Comcast reporting significant gains. As has been reported, Comcast has touted its advanced X1 video service as a reason it bucked the cord-cutting trend in Q1 as it focuses heavily on offering premium pay TV options rather than skinny bundles.
“We think X1 in particular, the platform that drives video for us, keeps getting better and better as we penetrate it deeper and deeper into our base. That’s distinct vs. other folks,” Mike Cavanagh, CFO and senior executive VP at Comcast, commented at an investor conference back in May. “There are new entrants in the OTT space coming in, but we like the tools and our toolkit to continue to compete effectively for the business.”
The informitv report shows AT&T with the largest TV subscriber loss, with 233,000 fewer subscribers for its U-verse service, while its DirecTV subsidiary reported no change and did not report specific numbers for its DirecTV Now online offering.
Leading operators in India gained at least 1.67 million subscribers between them, led by SITI, which added 800,000, according to informitv. In Europe, Canal+ lost 109,000 subscribers in France, while Sky gained 73,000 in Germany and 40,000 customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
“95 percent of homes subscribing to the services in the ‘Multiscreen Index’ have access to services that can be viewed on a screen other than the traditional television,” Analyst Sue Farrell says. “97 percent of services in the Americas now offer a multiscreen service.”
