The largest traditional cable providers collectively lost over 1.5 million customers in the second quarter of 2020 – an overall loss of 2.0% of customers. This is the smaller than the loss in the first quarter of 1.7 million net customers. To put the quarter’s loss into perspective, the big cable providers lost 16,700 cable customers per day throughout the quarter.
The numbers below come from Leichtman Research Group which compiles these numbers from reports made to investors, except for Cox which is estimated. The numbers reported are for the largest cable providers, and Leichtman estimates that these companies represent 95% of all cable customers in the country.
Following is a comparison of the second quarter subscriber numbers compared to the end of the first quarter of 2020:
| 1Q 2020 | 2Q 2019 | Change | % Change | |
| Comcast | 20,367,000 | 20,845,000 | (478,000) | -2.3% |
| Charter | 16,168,000 | 16,074,000 | 94,000 | 0.6% |
| DirecTV | 14,290,000 | 15,136,000 | (846,000) | -5.6% |
| Dish TV | 9,017,000 | 9,057,000 | (40,000) | -0.4% |
| Verizon | 4,062,000 | 4,145,000 | (83,000) | -2.0% |
| Cox | 3,770,000 | 3,820,000 | (50,000) | -1.3% |
| AT&T U-verse | 3,400,000 | 3,440,000 | (40,000) | -1.2% |
| Altice | 3,102,900 | 3,137,500 | (34,600) | -1.1% |
| Mediacom | 676,000 | 693,000 | (17,000) | -2.5% |
| Frontier | 560,000 | 594,000 | (34,000) | -5.7% |
| Atlantic Broadband | 311,845 | 314,645 | (2,800) | -0.9% |
| Cable One | 290,000 | 303,000 | (13,000) | -4.3% |
| Total | 76,014,745 | 77,559,145 | (1,544,400) | -2.0% |
| Total Cable | 44,685,745 | 45,187,145 | (501,400) | -1.1% |
| Total Satellite | 23,307,000 | 24,193,000 | (886,000) | -3.7% |
| Total Telco | 8,022,000 | 8,179,000 | (157,000) | -1.9% |
Some observations about the numbers:
- The big loser is AT&T, which lost 886,000 traditional video customers between DirecTV and AT&T U-verse. For many quarters AT&T claimed losses were due to the company eliminating low-margin customers. It seems losses are more likely now due to price increases.
- The big percentage loser is Frontier that lost almost 6% of its cable customers in the quarter. The Frontier numbers have been lowered for both quarters to reflect the sale of its property in the Pacific northwest.
- While DirecTV continues to bleed customers, Dish Networks has seemed to have stemmed losses.
- The most interesting story is for Charter that gained customers during the quarter. The company credits the gains to offering a lower-price package and also to a marketing campaign that is giving two months free of broadband. 329,000 customers took that offer in the second quarter and nearly half of those customers elected to add on cable TV and/or cellular service, both of which were for pay, and not free. Charter has been beating the industry as a whole for cable subscribers every quarter since Q3 2018.
The losses of cable companies continue to mount at dizzying levels for the industry. This is the sixth consecutive quarter where the industry lost over one million cable subscribers. The big providers collectively have lost 3.2 million customers this year, from a starting point of 79.3 million customers at the end of 2019.
It’s especially worth noting that these losses happened during a quarter when the biggest ISPs gained over 1.2 million customers for the quarter.
We’re likely going to have to wait to understand exactly what is happening in the cable industry. For example, a recent large survey from TiVO showed that 25% of US homes have downgraded to less expensive cable packages (cord-shaving). That would mean total revenue losses over and above what would be expected by just net customer losses.
Interestingly, homes don’t seem to be fleeing traditional cable for the online equivalents. Leichtman also tracks Hulu Live, Sling TV, and DirecTV Now and those three companies collectively lost 24,000 customers for the quarter.