US pay TV subs ‘fall by 800,000 in Q1’

US pay TV subscriber numbers declined by 802,000 in Q1, a traditionally strong three-month period for the industry, according to new research.

SNL Kagan’s First Quarter US Multichannel Subscriber report estimated that the total traditional multichannel subscriptions fell to 97.0 million in Q1.

It attributed the decline to the impact of new streaming options “rather than outright cord cutting”.

“Adding estimated subscribers from virtual services including Sling TV, DirecTV Now and Playstation Vue, lifts the combined total subscriptions to a package of live linear channels and on-demand content to99.2 million,” according to the research.

For the quarter, cable operators are estimated to have lost 188,000 total video customers; direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers lost an estimated 291,000 subscribers; while telcos lost 324,000 subscribers.