DIRECTV has had a hard 2023 so far, according to a report from the Leichtman Research Group, which follows the Broadband, Media, and Entertainment Industries. According to a recent report looking at major pay-TV providers, DIRECTV lost 400,000 subscribers in the 2nd quarter of 2023. This works out to be over 4,395 customers canceling DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, or U-verse TV every single day.
DIRECTV is not alone in struggling with subscriber losses, as all major cable TV companies reported losing TV subscribers in the 2nd quarter of 2023. This includes Comcast losing 543,000, Spectrum losing 189,000, DISH 294,000, Verizon 69,000, and Altice USA 68,300. The total of this is 1,163,300 lost subscribers in just three months for the five largest cable TV companies.
According to the Leichtman Research Group, 1,728,532 Americans canceled their live TV service in the 2nd quarter of 2023. That works out to be over 18,990 people canceling TV every single day. If that trend continues, over 6.9 million Americans will cancel cable TV over the next year.
Comcast has been hit hardest recently by cord cutting, with 12.6% of its subscribers canceling cable TV. This is followed by DISH losing 10.8%, and Verizon losing 9.2% of its subscribers.
Recently DIRECTV has been fighting with Nexstar over fees to air their networks. This has resulted in 159 Nexstar-owned local TV stations going dark on DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and U-Verse. NewsNation and The CW have also gone dark on DIRECTV. This could help continue to push DIRECTV’s numbers down.
DIRECTV is not an independent private company but is still majority owned by AT&T. Because of that, they no longer report numbers, and this 400,000 number is based on the Leichtman Research Group’s estimate. Cord Cutters News has reached out to DIRECTV for comment and will update our story as we learn more.