Top US pay TV operators lose 663,000 subs in Q2

The 10 leading pay TV services in the US lost 663,000 subscribers between them in the second quarter of 2016, according to Informitv’s Multiscreen Index report.

AT&T, the largest pay TV group in the Index saw its satellite subsidiary DirecTV gain 342,000 television customers in the US, while its U-verse telco television service lost 391,000.

Comcast reduced its television customer loss for the quarter to 4,000, ending the period with 22.40 million television subscribers, while Verizon Fios television subscribers declined by 1,226,000 following the transfer of some markets to Frontier – which gained 1,085,000.

Meanwhile, Charter the third largest provider following the merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, lost 152,000 TV subscribers with a total of 16.93 million in the quarter.

“DIRECTV was the only company in the top 10 to report organic subscriber growth, although that was largely at the expense of AT&T U-verse,” said Informitv analyst Sue Farrell.

“It’s been a turbulent quarter with some large losses but the real story is one of consolidation.”