Leichtman still doesn't accept "cord-cutting" phenomenon, however
Leichtman Research Group (LRG) is out with another new study showing that the major U.S. pay television providers lost some 325,000 customers in the second quarter of this year.
The top cable companies lost 540,000 subscribers in the second quarter, down from 600,000 in the same period in 2011. Comcast led the way with a loss of 176,000 subscribers for the quarter (although that was less than the 238,000 the company lost in 2Q2011), while Time Warner Cable (including recently-acquired Insight) lost more subscribers this year than last (169,000 versus 141,000 in 2Q2011).
Dish and DirecTV also lost customers, with DirecTV posting its first loss ever. In the second quarter, DirecTV lost 52,000 customers, with Dish improving its performance and shedding only 10,000.
The only companies actually still gaining ground this time around are the telecoms. Both Verizon (with its FIOS service) and AT&T (U-verse) showed fairly sizable gains of 120,000 and 155,000 customers, respectively, although those numbers are smaller than the same quarter last year.
Interestingly, while these losses have been going on for a while, LRG's president and principal analyst, Bruce Leichtman, still refuses to accept that the "cord-cutting" phenomenon that's been gaining ground in recent years is real.
"While reports of multi-channel video industry losses in the second quarter of 2012 have rekindled pronouncements of cord-cutting impacting the industry, the reality is that industry-wide losses in the traditionally weak quarter were nearly identical to losses in last year's second quarter," he said.
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