U.S. Pay-TV Market Remains Resilient

LONDON: Despite rising costs to customers and the increase of alternative online video subscription services, pay-TV subscriber numbers in the U.S. remain relatively resilient, according to informitv's Multiscreen Index.

New figures show that the top ten pay-TV services in the U.S. lost 165,500 digital television customers in the second quarter, which is typically seasonally weak. This represents just 0.2 percent of their combined subscriber base, which is more than 87 million homes. Q2 generally sees subscriber losses for service providers, though 2014 saw a reduction in net losses (compared to 274,700 in Q2 2013 and 207,700 in Q2 2012).

While much has been debated about cord-cutting in the U.S., the Multiscreen Index shows that there have been net gains in every other quarter over the last two years. The total number of subscribers across the top ten is up by more than 400,000 year-on-year and more than 1.5 million over two years.

In the U.S., DIRECTV, DISH Network, AT&T and Verizon all gained video customers over the year; Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Mediacom lost video subs. Average revenue per subscriber has been increasing across the board. However, customers appear to be adopting lower-cost online video subscription services such as Netflix in addition to pay television, rather than as a substitute.

“Changes in subscriber numbers should be viewed in the context of seasonality, relative scale and overall market size,” said Dr. William Cooper, the editor of the Multiscreen Index. “In an increasingly competitive mature market, the longer-term trend is that satellite and telco providers have been gaining customers, generally at the expense of cable companies.”