US pay TV operators lost almost 1.25 million subscribers in Q2

The US pay TV industry lost 1.23 million subscribers during the second quarter of 2021, a new report has revealed. 

According to Leichtman Research Group, the top pay TV providers in the country now account for about 77.6 million subscribers. This is made up of 42.6 million users subscribing to the top seven cable companies, while other traditional pay TV services have about 28.2 million subscribers. Meanwhile, the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay TV services recorded about 6.8 million subscribers at the end of the quarter.

The country’s top cable providers had a net loss of about 590,000 video subscribers in Q2 – notably worse than losses of about 505,000 subscribers in Q2 2020. Other traditional pay TV services meanwhile had a net loss of 700,000 subscribers, though this is significantly improved from the losses of 1.045 million at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in Q2 2020.

vMVPD services like Hulu + Live TV and fubotTV added 55,000 subscribers in the quarter, an improvement over the 45,000 added in the year before quarter.

Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc, said: “Pay TV net losses of 1,230,000 in Q2 2021 were about 275,000 fewer than in Q2 2020 on a pro forma basis. Over the past year, top pay TV providers had a net loss of about 4,520,000 subscribers, compared to a loss of about 5,460,000 over the prior year.”