The traditional pay TV industry saw its subscriber base shrink by 3.7 percent in 2017, driven by increased satellite TV provider losses and accelerating decreases for cable operators, according to data from Kagan, a group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Traditional pay TV subscriptions dropped to 94 million for the year, with Kagan estimating that combined cable, satellite and telco subscriptions fell by 7.4 million from their peak in 2012. When virtual MVPDs Sling TV and DirecTV Now are included in the figure, pay TV subscriptions reached 97.3 million.
Telcos lost 903,262 subscribers overall for the year, ending 2017 with 10.6 million customers. That sector did, however, manage to slow their net subscriber losses for a third quarter in a row.
Cable operators’ losses grew, with the sector shedding 986,411 video subscribers in 2017, more than twice their drop in 2016. That marks the end of a three-year deceleration streak of video subscriber losses, according to Kagan.
Satellite providers were down nearly 1.7 million customers in 2017, its largest annual loss on record. AT&T lost 147,000 DirecTV satellite customers in the fourth quarter, while Dish Network reported losing about 1.1 million legacy satellite TV subscribers over the last year.
