U.S. Pay Providers Lost 1.9 Million Subs in Q1

The largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. lost 1.895 million net video subscribers in the first quarter of 2021, similar to the 1.955 million lost in the same period in 2020, per Leichtman Research Group (LRG).

The country’s leading pay operators, which represent some 95 percent of the market, account for about 78.7 million subscribers. According to LRG, the top seven cable platforms have 43.1 million subs, other traditional pay-TV platforms have 28.9 million and the leading publicly reporting vMVPDs have about 6.7 million customers.

Cable platforms shed 775,000 video customers in Q1, up from the 595,000 lost in the year-ago period and marking a new record for quarterly losses. Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 865,000 subscribers, down from the 1.15 million lost in 1Q 2020. The top publicly reporting vMVPDs lost about 255,000 subscribers, up from 210,000 in the same period last year.

Over the course of 2020, the leading pay-TV providers had a net loss of 4.79 million customers, down from the 2019 loss of 5.125 million.