The number of pay TV subscribers fell by 625,000 to 100.4 million during the second quarter, according to SNL Kagan, which said the industry is on pace for a big annual decline following a weak first quarter.
The decline in subscribers affect TV networks, which earn distribution revenue based on how many customers they have. The drop comes as more consumers watch steaming video from sources such as Netflix.
Kagan said the second-quarter plunge reflected weakness at the telco and satellite distributors.
Cable video subscribers were down 350,000, but that was the smallest loss since 2008. Since 2008, when cable subs were down 211,000, the average second quarter decline has been 609,000.
Satellite subscribers dropped 304,000, with both DirecTV and Dish down.
There are now fewer than 34 million satellite subscribers. The telcos, which had been gaining subscribers, were flat in the quarter at 11.7 million.
(Photo via Ervins Strauhmanis's Flickr. Image taken on Sept. 19, 2014 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)
