By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –Follow on X.
Former editor of Satellite DIRECT magazine. Reported on DIRECTV for 30 years.
DIRECTV, which includes the satellite service, DIRECTV Stream and U-verse, lost approximately one million subscribers in the second half of 2023 and 1.8 million during the entirety of the year, according to a new report from the Leichtman Research Group.
The research firm says that left DIRECTV with 11.3 million subs at the end of 2023, which would mean it has now lost roughly 14.2 million subscribers since 2015 when AT&T bought the satcaster. (AT&T spun off the company in 2021. The telco now owns 70 percent of DIRECTV with the private equity firm, TPG, owning 30 percent.)
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Despite the staggering losses, DIRECTV is still the third largest pay TV operator in the United States behind Comcast (14.1 million) and Charter’s Spectrum TV (14.12 million), according to the Leichtman study.
However, DIRECTV had 25.47 million subscribers in 2015 when AT&T first purchased the company, more than any other pay TV service. The new numbers would mean that DIRECTV has lost approximately 56 percent of its sub base since 2015.
The pay TV industry has been hit hard by the cord-cutting trend with millions of subscribers opting for less expensive streaming plans. But no cable or satellite operator has lost anything close to the number of subscribers that DIRECTV has since 2015.
By comparison, Comcast’s Xfinity TV service has lost approximately eight million subscribers since the third quarter of 2015 (when AT&T purchased DIRECTV) to DIRECTV’s 14 million. Dish, which also owns the live streamer, Sling TV, has lost roughly 5.4 million subscribers in the eight years. (13.9 million to 8.5 million.)
The Leichtman report also estimates that YouTube TV, the leading live streaming service, added 1.9 million subscribers in 2023, far more than any other pay TV service. YouTube TV had approximately 7.9 million subscribers at the end of 2023, according to Leitchman.
Hulu Live and Fubo are the only other multi-channel pay TV services that gained subscribers in 2023 with net additions of 100,000 and 173,000 respectively, Leichtman says.
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The TV Answer Man is veteran journalist Phillip Swann who has covered the TV technology scene for more than three decades. He will report on the latest news and answer your questions regarding new devices and services that are changing the way you watch television. See the bio for Phillip Swann here.
