SNL Kagan: U.S. Q2 Multichannel Subs Down

MONTEREY: SNL Kagan estimates that cable, DBS and telco video providers collectively lost 366,000 video subscribers in the second quarter, however, this is actually an 11-percent improvement from the loss posted in the year-ago quarter.

The multichannel industry is still below its mid-2012 levels. The combined cable, telco and DBS counts were more than 200,000 lower than in Q2 2012. Cable doubled its loss from the previous quarter, but the estimated decline of 607,000 was a slight improvement from the year-ago count. The industry's basic video count fell by 1.8 million in the last 12 months, and cable's share of the combined customers was down to 55.3 percent.

The telecommunications companies continued to take video share from the cable and DBS segments. The telco arena, with more than 400,000 net adds, gained more subscribers than in the year-ago quarter and exceeded 10.7 million total video customers as of mid-2013.

For DBS, there was a drop of 162,000 subs in the quarter. This was the single-largest quarterly decline, yet the DBS segment is still slightly ahead of its year mark with a small increase over the last 12 months.