DirecTV dropping subs
October 25, 2018
By Chris Forrester
DirecTV lost a net overall 359,000 DTH subscribers during the quarter-year to September 30th. Worse, perhaps, is that its OTT service DirecTV Now managed to persuade only 49,000 new subscribers to trade down.
The losses were significantly more than even the worst predictions from the market. Losses of around 245,000-250,000 had been expected, much the same as the same period last year when it lost 251,000 subcribers.
New subscriber additions were also down y-o-y, at 49,000 (vs 296,000 last year).
Analysts are saying that DirecTV’s lost subscribers meant gains for OTT players such as Netflix and Hulu.
DirecTV said it was looking closely at its channel line-up. “We’re evaluating our programme line-up. Content is the largest and fastest-growing cost of any video offering. We’re evaluating our channel line-ups and taking a fresh look at how we can align content costs with the price. It’s also about what customers want. And many want smaller, value-based video packages.”