US pay-TV majors accelerate subs losses in 2022
The downward trajectory of the US pay-TV industry continues unabated with a study from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) showing that major providers lost about 5.88 million subscribers in 2022, about 1.2 million more than in the previous year.
The leading pay-TV providers, representing about 92% of the market, now account for about 70.2 million subscribers – with the top seven cable companies having about 37.8 million video subscribers, other traditional pay-TV services having 24.1 million subscribers, and the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services having 8.3 million subscribers.
Looking at market dynamics, LRG found that the top cable providers had a net loss of about 3.530 million video subscribers in 2022, compared with a loss of about 2.695 million subscribers in 2021. Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 2.72 million subscribers in 2022, though this was around 170,000 fewer loss than a year earlier.
The top pay-TV providers had a net loss of about 5.9 million subscribers, compared to a pro forma loss of about 4.7 million subscribers in 2021, and 4.9 million in 2020. Overall traditional pay-TV services, not including vMVPDs, had a net loss of about 6,250,000 subscribers in 2022. This compared with a net loss of about 5.585 million in 2021.
Excluding YouTube TV, which does not regularly report results, LRG revealed that the top publicly reporting vMVPDs added about 370,000 subscribers in 2022, just more than half a million less than in 2021.
Highlighting the performance of individual companies, Comcast lost just over two million subs to total 16.142 million. Rival Charter had 15.147 million subs, down 686,000 on the year. DIRECTV saw subs fall by 1.5 million to total 13.1 million. By contract, Hulu Live + TV climbed 200,000 to total 4.5 million. FuboTV added 323,000 for a total of 1.445 million
