Get ready for traditional TV to have historically brutal subscriber losses this quarter

[kevindavis007]

The traditional TV industry could be in for a historically brutal quarter.


Pay TV providers could lose more than a million subscribers in the current period, a team of analysts at UBS led by John C. Hodulik wrote in a research note distributed Tuesday.


"That would be the worst result on record and equate to a 2.5% annual decline," compared to 2.1% last quarter, the analysts wrote.


And things for the industry could only get worse, the analysts wrote.


"We estimate this will put the industry on pace for a 3.3% decline in 2017 and 4.0% in 2018," they said in their note.


Over the last few years, there has been a fierce debate over whether "cord-cutting" — people ditching their expensive cable TV packages — is a trend, or an overblown media narrative. But recent results make it hard to say "nothing" is going on. The pay-TV industry already lost about 762,000 subscribers in the first quarter this year, according to MoffettNathanson.


“For the better part of fifteen years, pundits have predicted that cord-cutting was the future. Well, the future has arrived,” industry analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a report about the Q1 results.


Read More: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ready-traditional-tv-historically-brutal-190201399.html

[dfwgator]

GOOD!

[Wingnut]

I have been free of that evil ATT Dish for 6 weeks now.   I honestly had a little withdawl paigns early on.   No longer.  I'm free, free at last.  Suck on that you overpriced blood sucking leech ATT. 

[kevindavis007]

I have been free of that evil ATT Dish for 6 weeks now.   I honestly had a little withdawl paigns early on.   No longer.  I'm free, free at last.  Suck on that you overpriced blood sucking leech ATT.

Free of DirectTV for close to 5 months.. Don't miss it..

[Sanguine]

I have been free of that evil ATT Dish for 6 weeks now.   I honestly had a little withdawl paigns early on.   No longer.  I'm free, free at last.  Suck on that you overpriced blood sucking leech ATT.

Yeah, me too.  I've got Amazon Prime and Sling.  More than enough to watch.

[Elderberry]

I'm always late to the party, but I just pulled the plug on Dish.

[roamer_1]

I honestly had a little withdrawal pains early on.

I know what you mean... For me, the clicker withdrawal was pretty profound - I always had a bump list built in my clicker so I could cycle through several channels to avoid commercials and boring bits... I was actively always watching at least two channels all the time...

My clicker thumb twitched uncontrollably for quite some time... but without commercials, and with the impossibility of simultaneous feeds/channels... Eventually it settled down.

And now, I can't even tell you the last time I watched a TV series at all... Maybe the new Longmire season last fall.

[kevindavis007]

Yeah, me too.  I've got Amazon Prime and Sling.  More than enough to watch.

I have Prime, Sling and Hulu (for free).. I use Bing rewards to get Hulu for free.

[DB]

The cable provider here won't let you pick which channels you want and instead have tiers of bundled channels. If you want only one channel in the next up tier its all or nothing.

So it is nothing.

They better figure out how to provide specifically what their customers want or they'll be left behind.

[Wingnut]

The cable provider here won't let you pick which channels you want and instead have tiers of bundled channels. If you want only one channel in the next up tier its all or nothing.

So it is nothing.

They better figure out how to provide specifically what their customers want or they'll be left behind.

If they would alow ala cart channel selection and do away with those ridiculous $7.50 per month box charges and 15 for the DVR  and a host of other fees I would concider giving them a second look.    But since that will not happen.... May they rot and go bankrupt.

[Applewood]

The cable provider here won't let you pick which channels you want and instead have tiers of bundled channels. If you want only one channel in the next up tier its all or nothing.

So it is nothing.

They better figure out how to provide specifically what their customers want or they'll be left behind.

I believe Sling TV is working on offering channels a la carte.  Even though Sling still has packages, they are largely grouped by interests.  For example, I don't want 30 different versions of ESPN, so I bought a basic package with no ESPN and only a smidgen of sports channels.  But if I did want sports, I could order add-on package with plenty of sports.

Whatever I get,  it's still cheaper than cable.  $25 for my basic channels and add-on packages are between $5 and $15 extra.

[Fishrrman]

My internet/tv/phone bill jumped by $6 this month.
The new charge is listed as "regional sports fee".

Time for a visit to the service provider (Frontier), and get my services scaled back.

I have no likin' for Comcast, but may give them a try for a couple of years.

[Free Vulcan]

I expect Youtube's realtime service to grow and spawn imitators. If it catches on that will be the nail in the coffin.

[Applewood]

My internet/tv/phone bill jumped by $6 this month.
The new charge is listed as "regional sports fee".

Time for a visit to the service provider (Frontier), and get my services scaled back.

I have no likin' for Comcast, but may give them a try for a couple of years.

If you didn't like Comcast before,you really won't like it now. 

[kevindavis007]

I expect Youtube's realtime service to grow and spawn imitators. If it catches on that will be the nail in the coffin.

Keep an eye on Hulu