Research: US pay-TV Q1 down 612K subs
July 14, 2017
The pay-TV market in the US started 2017 with a slight decline, according to research firm Dataxis.
The total number of subscribers reached 100.3 million for the first quarter of 2017, which represent a fall of -0.61 per cent (-612 000 subscribers) compared to Q4 2016. This trend of the market shows an erosion from several quarters.
Compared to Q4 2016, Dataxis analysis shows different variations between different pay-TV technologies: Cable remained relatively stable (down from -0.17 per cent), amounting to 58.4 million subscribers, whereas, DTH lost subscribers (-1.32 per cent) amounting to 33.2 million subscribers. IPTV confirmed a clear downward trend with 6.3 million subscribers (-3.1 per cent). On the other hand, linear OTT pay-TV services are the only services to show a growing trend, with a base of 2.4 million subscribers (+ 6 per cent).
According to Dataxis, the US pay-TV market is dominated by cable TV which represents more than half of the subscribers. DTH accounts for one third of the market whereas, IPTV represents 6 per cent and linear OTT doubled its share compared to last year, reaching 2 per cent of the market.
Dataxis points out that the pay-TV market is led by AT&T Group (DirecTV USA, AT&T, DirecTV NOW), with a 25 per cent share. Comcast holds second place with 23 per cent of total subscribers and Charter completes the podium with 17 per cent of the market share.