Top Pay-TV Providers Lost 5.1M Video Subs in 2020, Says LRG

Top U.S. pay-TV providers lost 5.1 million net video subscribers in 2020, up from the 4.8 million pro forma net loss in 2019, Leichtman Research Group said Thursday. The top providers collectively have about 81.3 million subs, with the seven largest cable companies having 43.9 million, direct broadcast satellite 21.8 million, telcos 7.9 million and the top publicly reporting virtual MVPDs 7.7 million. DBS lost about 3.4 million subs in 2020, compared with 3.7 million in losses the previous year. The seven largest cablers lost 1.92 million in 2020 vs. 1.56 million in losses a year earlier. Slowing their losses were telcos, with 405,000 lost video subs in 2020 vs. 630,000 lost in 2019. VMVPDs Hulu+, Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV Now and fuboTV added 640,000 subs in 2020, compared with 1.1 million net adds in 2019.