Cable Had Good 2015, Telcos Bad One, in Video Subscriber Numbers, LRG Says

The 13 largest multichannel video programming distributors lost 385,000 video subscribers in 2015, more than the 2014 and 2013 losses combined, said Leichtman Research Group. LRG said the nine largest cable companies lost 345,000 video subscribers -- the smallest cable losses since 2006, while direct broadcast satellite providers added 86,000 subscribers, with those numbers including gains from Dish Network's Sling TV. Minus Sling, DBS providers lost 450,000 subscribers, Leichtman said in a news release Thursday. The top phone providers lost 125,000 video subscribers during the year, it said. In just Q4, Leichtman said, the largest cable companies added about 125,000 subscribers, their first quarter of net video additions since Q1 2008, DirecTV's additions of 214,000 subscribers marked its best quarter since Q4 2010, and AT&T's U-verse lost 240,000 subscribers vs. a 73,000 gain a year earlier. Overall, 2015 was the best year for cable providers since 2006, with 870,000 fewer losses than 2014, while telcos had 1.17 million fewer net additions than in 2014 and their worst year since the addition of video services in 2006, said LRG analyst Bruce Leichtman.