Sling TV, DirecTV Now Helping Offset MVPD Subscriber Losses, Kagan Says

Growing virtual MVPD services like Sling TV and DirecTV Now helped mitigate some subscriber defections of traditional MVPDs in Q2, Kagan said Thursday. Cable, direct broadcast satellite and telcos lost 860,640 video subscribers, for 89.4 million residential customers and 92.2 million overall. DBS had its second-largest quarterly decline, at 478,000. AT&T's DirecTV Now and Dish Networks affiliate Sling TV numbers cut overall quarterly subscription losses about 45 percent and raised the residential figure to 93.5 million. Residential MVPD penetration is 75 percent, when including Sling TV and DirecTV Now. The quarter had the second largest Q2 video subscriber drop for cable since 2015, bringing year-to-date losses to 685,790. Telco video losses improved, with the industry losing 56,000 subs, a fraction of its typical quarterly losses the past two years. Others have also said vMVPDs offset some traditional MVPD customer losses (see 1808150010).