2023 was a tough year for cable TV companies, as over 6.9 million American households canceled cable and satellite TV. Some of the heaviest hit TV companies include Comcast, which lost over 2 million; Spectrum, which lost over 1 million; DIRECTV, losing 1.8 million; and DISH, which lost 945,000, according to the Leichtman Research Group.
Now MoffettNathanson, a well-respected research group, has come out with a report saying YouTube TV is on track to add 1.5 million new subscribers per year. With this MoffettNathanson says it expects YouTube TV to become the largest provider of live TV in the United States in a new report according to a report by NextTV. This would make YouTube TV larger than Comcast, Spectrum, DIRECTV, DISH, and others.
Even more important it is expected to break even in 2024 as it will stop losing money this year. It is expected that YouTube TV will reach $600 million in net income in 2026 according to the MoffettNathanson report.
This all comes as cable TV and network executives had expected streaming services to help replace these losses but that is not happen. YouTube TV, Hulu, Sling TV, and Fubo though combined only added 1,894,000 subscribers in 2023. Most of that came from YouTube TV, adding 1.9 million subscribers. Hulu added 100,000 live TV customers and Fubo added 173,000 subscribers in 2023. At the same time Sling TV lost 279,000 subscribers in 2023.
This is very bad news for cable TV networks who had hoped live TV streaming could help keep their networks running. Instead a growing number of Americans are switching to on-demand only services like Disney+, Hulu, Max, and Paramount+ to name a few. This could be one of the reasons Warner Bros. Discovery just announced TruTV is being refocused into a sports network.
We have also seen an rapid growth of free ad-supported streaming services like Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and others. This comes as there is now more content than ever 100% free with ads.
If this trend of cord cutting growing faster and faster continues, we could see cord cutting get close to 8 million new cord cutters in 2024, according to Cord Cutters News projections.
In total, counting all live TV services, including cable TV, satellite, and streaming, the number of people paying for channels like ESPN dropped by over 5 million in 2023. Bad news for cable networks hoping streaming would offset the decline in cable TV subscribers.
With these numbers you can now understand why Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery is moving to launch their own sports focused live TV streaming service later this year. This move cuts out the middle man helping them be more profitable.
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