Kagan: US operators lose 860,000 subscribers in Q2

The traditional cable, satellite and telco multichannel TV providers in the US lost 860,640 video subscribers in the second quarter, according to a Kagan report.

The S&P Global Market Intelligence company said that the satellite TV portion of the market logged its “second largest quarterly decline on record,” losing 478,000 customers.

Cable recorded its largest second-quarter video subscriber drop since 2015, bringing year-to-date losses to 685,790, while the telco video segment “improved dramatically,” reducing its losses to just 56,000.

Combined, cable, satellite and teclo operators ended the quarter with 92.2 million subscribers, including 89.4 million residential customers.

However, Kagan said that taking into account new operator-provided over-the-top services like DirecTV Now and Sling TV, reduces the quarterly subscription losses by approximately 45% and raises the residential figure to 93.5 million.