Cord Cutting is growing faster than ever as the number of Americans paying for cable TV has dropped to its lowest levels since 1992. Now its not just cable TV companies losing TV customers at record rates. Now YouTube TV has seen strong growth and now reportedly has 6.3 million subscribers making it the largest live TV streaming service.
This comes from a report by the research firm MuffettNathanson that tracks streaming services and cable TV. Google does not officially release numbers, but according to MoffettNathanson, YouTube TV added 300,000 subscribers in the 1st quarter of 2023, bringing it up to 6.3 million subscribers.
During that same period, Hulu with Live TV lost about 100,000 subscribers. Sling TV lost about 200,000, and Fubo lost about 160,000 subscribers.
It seems that NFL Sunday Ticket coming to YouTube TV may have helped it grow. It wasn’t until the 2nd quarter of 2023 that NFL Sunday Ticket went up for sale on YouTube TV. However, you don’t need YouTube TV to get NFL Sunday Ticket and can subscribe to it through YouTube for a slightly higher price.
The question now is how long can YouTube TV keep growing. Increasingly most live TV services even cord cutting ones are losing subscribers.
From our surveys of Cord Cutters News readers, many cord cutters cancel cable TV with a live TV service like Fubo, Sling TV, or DIRECTV STREAM. Later many cord cutters, especially non-sports fans, find themselves switching to on-demand-only services like Paramount+ or HBO Max. Even sports fans are often only subscribing to live TV streaming services when their favorite sport is on TV.
This willingness by cord cutters to skip live TV service has left many cable TV executives struggling to come up with a way to counter the trend.
Increasing a growing number of cord cutters are ditching cable TV but not replacing it with a live TV streaming service. Just a few years ago, many cable executives expected to see most cord cutters to replace cable TV with similar live TV streaming services. Now though, most cord cutters have opted for cheaper on-demand only options vs more expensive live TV services like Sling TV and Fubo.
Now that cord cutters are learning what they really want and need. This idea you have to have everything for most people is just not accurate. This has lead to many services losing subscribers in 2023. Now the question is will this trend continue or will it turn around in the second half of 2023.