The largest pay TV providers in the United States – representing about 96% of the market – lost about 1,730,000 net video subscribers in the second quarter of 2023, compared to a pro forma net loss of about 1,725,000 in the same period of 2022, according to Leichtman Research Group’s latest report.
The top pay TV providers now account for about 71.9 million subscribers – with the top seven cable companies having 35.9 million video subscribers, other traditional pay TV services having about 22.7 million subscribers, and the top Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay TV services having about 13.4 million subscribers.
Leichtman Research Group also revealed that top cable providers had a net loss of about 925,000 video subscribers in the second quarter of 2023 – compared to a loss of about 950,000 subscribers in the same period of 2022. Other traditional pay TV services had a net loss of about 690,000 subscribers in Q2 2023 – compared to a loss of about 710,000 subscribers in Q2 2022. Meanwhile, top vMVPDs (including an estimate for YouTube TV) had a net loss of about 115,000 subscribers in the second quarter of the year – compared to a loss of about 65,000 subscribers in Q2 2022.
“Pay TV net losses of about 1.73 million in the second quarter of 2023 were similar to the losses in last year’s second quarter. Over the past year, top pay TV providers had a net loss of about 5,360,000 subscribers, compared to a net loss of about 4,235,000 over the prior year,” commented Bruce Leichtman, President and Principal Analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc.