Streaming services are killing cable and satellite TV

Pay-TV programs may be dying right before our eyes.

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The Future. Cable, satellite, and internet TV providers just had their worst quarter ever in terms of subscriber losses. With streaming continually on the rise and competition stiffer than ever, it looks like “Pay-TV” programs may be dying right before our eyes.

Cutting cords
From the numbers, it’s clear that people just aren’t watching “Pay-TV” anymore.

  • Comcast, the biggest US provider of Pay-TV, lost 614K subscribers – more than any other company.
  • But customer dropoff was severe across the board, with major cable operators seeing an average customer dropoff of 9.9% YoY.
  • Meanwhile, leading satellite providers lost 13.4% of their audiences.
  • Multichannel video programming distributors lost 264,000 customers over the same time span.

The sole pay-TV provider to grow its audience was YouTube TV, which added 300K subscribers in Q1.

Good night and good luck
The shift from Pay-TV to streaming services is only getting more pronounced. It’s telling that the only healthy competitor in this sphere, YouTube, is also a web giant and video-sharing platform. 

If it’s on cable, it can probably be streamed for cheap – so why not stream it? If these providers can’t figure out how to offer something streamers can’t, it’s curtains for cable.

Luke Perrotta

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