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Cable TV Loses over 1 Million Subscribers, Report Reveals

Cable seems to be feeling the burn that streaming services are coming in to take over. USA Today is reporting that cable and satellite TV providers have lost 1.1 million subscribers between July and September of 2018.

MoffettNathanson, a media research firm is confirming that this is the biggest quarterly loss they’ve experienced. Dish’s net loss was 321,000, which is a 16,000 increase from the same quarter in 2017.

DirectTV, owned by AT&T lost 341,000 in the quarter. Combined losses for satellite came to 726,000 subscribers.

Media and technology analyst Rich Greenfield of New York’s BTIG, said it was “the third-worst quarter in industry history and worst since Q2 2016.”

Approximately, 78% of US TV households now subscribe to some type of pay-TV service. New homes were created at the rate of 249k households annually per quarter faster than last year compared to this year. This equates to about 200k more subscribers per quarter, on the average.

MoffettNathinsons reports note that cord cutting does not to be slowing at all because in the April to June quarter, they had 415,000 losses, the smallest in 4 years for that quarter which is known to be weak.

The research firm E-marketer in July predicted that the cable and satellite would lose 33 million customers by the end of the year. Currently, Netflix is outspending every Hollywood studio after it took overtook HBO in Emmy nominations.

Cable and satellite still need to change their approach to regain the lost customer’s base. Otherwise, their business loses touch with the targeted customers. Do you see it recovering, or is streaming the forseeable future?