According to Kagan's fourth-quarter 2018 U.S. multichannel subscription report, traditional multichannel video losses swelled in the fourth quarter to push the full-year decline to nearly 4 million subscribers.
Combined, the cable, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and telecom multichannel sectors lost nearly 1.1 million subscriptions in the fourth quarter, which pushed the full-year decline to 4 million. DBS services accounted for more than half of the annual loss. Numbers of legacy video subscribers have dropped below 90 million.
Virtual platforms partially offset the traditional multichannel declines, keeping those customers in a subscription package of live linear channels, but gains to services such as Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV were not enough to prevent the space from shrinking. Traditional and virtual multichannel subscriptions combined fell nearly 1.3 million for the year.
Other findings indicate:
- The residential penetration rate for virtual and traditional multichannel services ticked down to 75% in the fourth quarter of 2018.
- Cable multiple system operators (MSOs) wrapped up 2018 with another round of quarterly losses, bringing the platform's annual decline to nearly 1.3 million, vs. a drop of 997,000 in 2017.
- Telco video services cut combined annual subscriber losses for a second consecutive year, losing 351,000 subs to end 2018 at 10.3 million.
- DirecTV and DISH each lost more than 1 million subs in 2018.
Kagan is a division of S&P Global.