Well the bad news keeps rolling in for traditional pay-TV providers. In the fourth quarter of 2016 pay-TV providers, such as Comcast, Dish, and Charter, put together lost 319,000 subscribers according to analyst Craig Moffet.
“With the results now in from all of the largest operators, it is clear that cord-cutting of legacy distribution services—that is, without including OTT-delivered virtual MVPD bundles like Sling TV and DirecTV Now (and soon, YouTube TV)—has at last meaningfully accelerated,” Moffett said. “While there admittedly remain a few smaller operators left to report, the pay-TV business (as defined by traditional providers) ended 2016 shrinking at 1.7% per year, its fastest quarterly acceleration on record.”
What is even scarier is the fact that those figures include subscribers from Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW because both Dish and AT&T combine numbers for their traditional pay-TV services and their streaming services.
When you look at 2016 as a whole 1.7 million fewer people pay for traditional pay TV at the end of 2016 over the start of 2016. That is a drop of 1.7% and “the fastest rate of decline on record.”
This really should not be a shock to anyone as 2016 was a great year for cord cutters. More channels and services joined the cord cutting movement; more press covered it; and it was easier than ever to become a cord cutter in 2016.
2017 is already set up to be an even better year for cord cutters. Just this week Google announced that it is launching its own live TV streaming service: YouTube TV. Hulu is expected to soon release its own live TV streaming service and rumors are floating around about other services.
Did you cancel traditional pay TV in 2016? If so leave us a comment and let us know.
Source: FierceCable
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