Worst Q1 for Pay-TV Subscriber Additions in 10-Plus Years, LRG Says

Last quarter was the worst Q1 for pay-TV customer additions in the more than a decade that Leichtman Research Group has tracked this statistic, it reported Thursday. It said the 13 top U.S. pay-TV companies, with 95 percent of the market, together added fewer than 10,000 net video subscribers last quarter, versus adding more than 250,000 in the year-ago period. LRG said top cable operators lost 60,000 video customers last quarter and satellite TV lost 74,000, while top telco-TV service providers added 140,000, which was a 44 percent decrease from Q1 2014. Pay TV lost 370,000 subscribers in the past year, up about 700 percent from losses in the prior 52-week period, said the researcher. “In addition to changes in consumer demand for video services spurred by competition from alternatives, the decline of about 0.4 percent of subscribers over the past year was also driven by several providers becoming more discerning in customer acquisition and retention," said LRG President Bruce Leichtman in a news release.