Kagan: U.S. Cord-Cutting Slowed in Q2

According to the Q2 2018 U.S. Multichannel Subscriber Report by Kagan, the cable, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and telco multichannel sectors lost a combined 860,640 video subscribers in the second quarter.

That brought the number of pay-TV subscribers to 92.2 million, including 89.4 million residential customers.

The DBS platform logged its second-largest quarterly decline on record, losing a combined 478,000 customers. Cable saw its largest second-quarter video subscriber drop since 2015, bringing year-to-date losses to 685,790. The telco video segment, meanwhile, improved during the period, reducing its losses to 56,000—a fraction of the quarterly losses seen in the last two years.

The pressure on traditional multichannel subscriptions let up a bit in the second quarter, Kagan said, a positive development that is further supported by the introduction of vMVPD services like Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW. Adding DIRECTV NOW and Sling TV into the mix reduces the quarterly subscription losses by about 45 percent. The U.S. residential multichannel penetration rate stood at 75 percent as of June 30, when including DIRECTV NOW and Sling TV.