US pay TV providers lost over 650,000 subscribers in Q3

The largest pay TV providers in the US lost 653,616 subscribers in Q3 2021.

According to Leichtman Research Group, the top pay TV providers – representing 93% of the market – now account for about 77 million subscribers. The Q3 2021 loss is significantly heavier than the pro forma net loss of about 90,000 in Q3 2020.

The top seven cable companies in the US ended the quarter with 41.9 million video subscribers, while other traditional pay TV services had over 27.5 million subscribers. The country’s top vMVPD services had 7.5 million subscribers, the only segment to actually add subscribers year-over-year with about 680,000 new additions.

Cable was hit the hardest, with subscribers such as Comcast, Charter and Cox losing a cumulative 700,500 subscribers in the quarter, compared to a loss of about 380,000 subscribers in Q3 2020.

Other traditional pay TV services had a net loss of about 635,000 subscribers in Q3 2021 – compared to a loss of about 780,000 subscribers in Q3 2020.

Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said: “While pay TV net losses in the quarter increased from last year’s third quarter, annual net losses were relatively similar to a year ago. Over the past year, top pay TV providers had a net loss of about 5,100,000 subscribers, compared to a loss of about 4,820,000 over the prior year.”