Pay TV Loses Over 940,000 Subs In 2Q

New data from MoffettNathanson shows traditional pay TV subscriber erosion worsened in the just-completed second quarter, rising from 2.5% in 1Q to 2.7%, “the fastest rate of decline on record.”

The “Cord-Cutting Monitor” study goes on to note that the second quarter “is always the year’s worst quarter — and with so many new virtual MVPDs competing for consumer dollars, everyone and their brother knew this quarter was going to be the worst ever. Indeed, if there was any surprise, it was only that the carnage this quarter came up short of the worst-case scenarios.”

Here are the numbers for the traditional pay TV distributors:

• Traditional pay TV distributors lost at estimated 941,000 subscribers in 2Q, the worst quarterly loss ever (the second quarter is always the worst of the year, as college campuses shut down for the summer and as snowbirds close up their winter homes until 3Q).

• Traditional pay TV distributor subscriber losses accelerated to a 2.7% decline, close to our expectation of a 2.8% decline going into the quarter.

• The rate of acceleration slowed from 70 bps to 20 bps.

Looking forward, MoffettNathanson said that “third quarter losses probably will accelerate still further, as least for traditional pay TV distributors…. But longer term, will the rate of decline for distributors stabilize at around 3% per year losses, as we currently predict, or will those losses accelerate to 4%, 5% or even 6% per year? There is, unfortunately, no roadmap.”