The legacy multichannel universe lost a record 976,000 video customers in the second quarter, better than expected but trends indicate the sector is in for an “unprecedented annual decline,” according to data compiled by Kagan, a group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.
According to Kagan, multichannel subscriptions dropped below 96.1 million in the second quarter, down 1.8 million since 2016, not including the two largest virtual MVPDs, Sling TV and DirecTV Now. Including those two services lifts the overall pay TV number to 98 million.
Kagan’s estimates were slightly higher than MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett’s—who put thelosses at 941,000 for the quarter.But the message was the same—cord cutting is on the rise and consumers are increasingly moving to alternative content distributors.
Go to multichannel.com for the full story.
