The 13 largest multichannel video programming distributors, as...
The 13 largest multichannel video programming distributors, as a group, had the first-ever loss of total video subscribers over four consecutive quarters, an industry researcher said Monday. Q1 subscriber gains of 195,000 to 94.9 million total among the MVPDs, a…
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growth rate 44 percent of the year-ago quarter’s net adds, “were not enough to offset subscriber losses from Q2 and Q3 2012,” said a Leichtman Research Group report. That leaves “major multi-channel video providers with a net loss of about 80,000 subscribers over the past year, compared to a net gain of about 380,000 over the prior year,” it said. The first such four-quarter decline in the decade-plus that the firm has tracked the industry reflects “a combination of a saturated market, an increased focus from providers on acquiring higher-value subscribers, and some consumers opting for a lower-cost mixture of over-the-air TV, Netflix and other over-the-top viewing options,” said President Bruce Leichtman. The report said cable operators lost subscribers, DBS added “57,000 subscribers in Q1 2013 -- the fewest in any Q1 over the past decade,” and phone companies added 401,000 for 9.7 million total.