Pay-TV Subscriber Losses Up in Q3, Leichtman Says

Pay-TV subscriber losses were up in Q3, when the 11 largest pay-TV players, covering about 95 percent of the market, lost roughly 255,000 net video subscribers, Leichtman Research Group said in a news release Wednesday. That compares with a loss of 210,000 subscribers in Q3 2015. LRG said the top six cable companies lost roughly 90,000 subscribers in the most recent quarter, down from losing 170,000 in Q3 a year earlier. Direct broadcast satellite added 207,000 subscribers in the quarter when Dish Network's Sling TV gains are included, compared with a gain of 3,000 in Q3 2015, Leichtman said. It said DirecTV's 323,000 net adds in Q3 were the most in any third quarter since 2011. Telco providers lost roughly 375,000 subs in the quarter, compared with a loss of 45,000 in Q3 2015. The researcher said that over the past year, AT&T has shed about 1.3 million U-verse subscribers while adding 1.2 million DirecTV subscribers. Over the past year, those top pay-TV providers have lost roughly 755,000 subs, compared with a loss of 445,000 over the previous 12 months.