US pay TV operators lost 2 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2022

Major pay TV operators in the US lost a little less than 2 million video subscribers in the first quarter of 2022.

According to Leichtman Research Group, the largest pay TV providers in the US – representing about 93% of the market –lost about 1.955 million net video subscribers in Q1 2022.

This is up from the same period in 2021, when those same operators lost 1.910 million subscribers. However, it is less than in Q1 2020, when they lost 1.960 million subscribers.

In total, the country’s top pay TV operators now account for about 74.1 million subscribers. The top seven share about 40.5 million video subscribers, while other traditional pay TV services have 26.2 million subscribers. vMVPD pay TV services such as YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV share 7.4 million subs.

Cable providers saw the heaviest losses, shedding 825,000 subscribers compared to 780,000 the year prior. This is followed by other traditional services, which lost 625,000 subscribers compared to 865,000 in Q1 2021. Somewhat surprisingly, the top publicly reporting vMVPDs lost about 505,000 subscribers compared to 265,000 a year prior. 

Commenting on the report, Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said: “Pay TV net losses of about 1.95 million in Q1 2022 were similar to the net losses in the first quarters of 2021 and 2020. Over the past year, top pay-TV providers had a net loss of 4,735,000 subscribers, similar to a loss of about 4,820,000 over the prior year.”