• by Wayne Friedman , November 17, 2017

Traditional pay TV companies -- cable, satellite, and telco -- have seen accelerated subscribers losses, down 2.9 million so far this year. Virtual pay TV companies are making gains.

Kagan, a group of S&P Global Market Intelligence, says that in the third quarter of this year, 1.2 million subscribers were lost by legacy pay TV providers. Total U.S. traditional pay TV subscribers now stand at 94.9 million.

Cable companies lost 801,000 video customers through the first nine months of 2017 --114% higher than over the same period a year ago.

Telecommunications-based pay TV/video operators sank 184,000 -- primarily coming from AT&T’s effort to shift business to satellite DirecTV from its U-verse telco platform. Pay TV satellite services were down 618,000 subscribers, accounting for a little more than half of all third-quarter declines.

Factoring in gains from digital pay TV providers -- Dish Network’s Sling TV and AT&T’s DirecTV Now -- trims the 2.9 million loss dramatically to around 635,000 customers.