The State of the U.S. Pay-TV Landscape

Just days after completing its acquisition of Time Warner, AT&T announced a new internet-delivered pay-TV service called WatchTV. The service will include a package of more than 30 live TV channels as well as a large library of on-demand content and be compatible with smartphones, tablets, web browsers and other streaming devices. Priced at $15 a month, WatchTV will be a cheaper alternative to AT&T’s DirecTV Now service and targeted at customers looking to have a basic supply of TV channels (along with their streaming subscriptions) without being tied to a huge cable bill every month.

As the following chart illustrates, the U.S. pay-TV landscape is rather fragmented with plenty of choices for customers unwilling to cut the cord. According to data compiled by the Leichtman Research Group, the largest pay-TV providers in the United States, representing approximately 95 percent of all subscribers, have had 91.9 million subscribers at the end of Q1 2018, down 300,000 since the end of last year. Meanwhile Netflix, arguably the biggest threat to the entire industry, ended the quarter with 56.7 million domestic subscribers.