Futuristic Move
Five out of six pay TV platforms reporting subscriber metrics in the second quarter said that this year’s turnovers look quite worse when compared to the previous years. Though AT&T, with its two services DirecTV and U-Verse, along with Dish Network, Comcast, and Verizon, reported earnings in the second quarter of 2016, pay TV services reported of a loss of around 375,000 subscribers in the same period.
During the second quarter last year, the said five service providers collectively reported a loss of 279,000 customers, where pay TV sector had lost 625,000 customers in the same time. This was the nastiest quarter report ever for subscriber metrics, but it seems as if the trend has not ended yet.
Charter Communications, on the bright side, will now cover metrics for the recently acquired Bright House Network and Time Warner Cable, which is expected to post a stronger customer number in its next quarterly earnings report.
Todd Juenger, a chief analyst at Bernstein Research, told investors that, “[they] are shocked the media stocks haven’t already reacted more negatively. Relative trends at the cable companies are expected to be better. But they will have a lot of ground to make up just to get back to last year’s Q2 rate of year-over-year decline – which was bad enough to send the media sector into a meltdown.”
Even though the second quarter is in bad shape for pay TV customer growth, many varying factors amid individual operators connive to drown the numbers further.
Satellite TV Channels
Dish Network, for instance, is staggered from continuing battles for carriage and transmission fee with Tribune media, which resulted in a blackout of 42 network affiliates in 33 markets. The satellite TV provider reported an upsetting decline in customers in the second quarter, but the numbers could have been worse if it wasn’t for its latest streaming service Sling TV, which acquired a steady growth to reduce the net loss of subscribers.
Verizon is another name in the list, which blamed a seven week strike paralyzing installations and advertisements. Whereas AT&T has shifted its focus from its own service U-Verse to their recently acquired DirecTV services, which is getting them a large number of audiences, and to some extent covering the losses in their mobility division.
