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The transition from traditional TV — satellite, cable and telco — to streaming is real, but it’s turning out to be as much about dumping the dish as it is cutting the cord. Roughly half the 3 million U.S. households who cut the cord in 2017 were satellite subscribers.
Dish Network and AT&T’s DirecTV lost a combined 1.5 million satellite subscribers last year, according to new report from Leichtman Research Group principal analyst Bruce Leichtman. By comparison, the major telephone providers lost 880,000 TV subscribers, and the major cable providers lost 660,000 TV subscribers.
Dish Network lost substantially more satellite subscribers than DirecTV — 995,000 vs. 554,000 — last year. That disparity is likely attributable to the fact that DirecTV parent AT&T bundles satellite service with phone, internet and mobile services. Dish has made some investments in wireless but is much closer to a pure-play satellite provider.
The traditional TV market’s loss of 3 million U.S. TV households was largely offset by the 2.6 million households that signed up for TV service with streamers YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, PlayStation Vue, AT&T’s DirecTV Now and Dish’s Sling TV last year, media analyst Craig Moffatt reported in early March. Dish and AT&T both more than offset their satellite losses last year with new streaming subscribers.
“The satellite business is definitely a maturing business,” Dish Network CEO Erik Carlson said in February during a call with investment analysts. “We don’t have the growth dynamics that we had in the early years, but we still see some opportunity.”
Dish and AT&T have both said they’re focusing satellite service in suburban and rural areas that have fewer TV options, but satellite still accounts for roughly one-third of the 92 million U.S. households who subscribe to bundled TV services, according to the Leichtman report.
Carlson framed satellite as a service for “longterm, profitable customers” who pay for premium channels, additional set-top boxes, etc., and who don’t frequently change providers looking for a better deal. For those consumers, Carlson said, Dish is positioning Sling TV as an alternative.
Scott Porch writes about the TV business for Decider, is a contributing writer for Playboy, and hosts a weekly podcast about new digital content called Consumed with Scott Porch. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.
