The Cordcutter Chronicles: Your weekly dose of what’s happening in cord cutting
- Streaming price hikes, record subscriber losses
- Spectrum changes their cancellation policy
- 14,000 people are leaving Pay TV each day
- Court TV is now available OTA
Streaming services not helping Pay TV losses
Pay TV saw record losses in the first quarter of 2019 and for the first time, their streaming options aren’t helping to offset the loss. Services like DirecTV Now recently increased their monthly fee, causing some customers to cancel their subscriptions. In fact, DirecTV Now lost 83,000 subscribers in Q1 2019 alone.
In the past, streaming services offered by traditional cable and satellite companies offset the subscriber losses. AT&T lost 187,000 traditional TV subscribers in Q1 of last year but also added 312,000 subscribers to their DirecTV Now platform. But as these services see their own losses, they’re doing little to stop the bleeding.
Charter makes it harder to cancel Internet
Earlier this month, Charter Spectrum sneakily updated their cancellation policy to end prorated bills. Instead, if a customer cancels their Spectrum internet service in the middle or beginning of the month, they will be charged for an entire month of service. The notice was added in the fine print of customers’ latest billing statements.
Cable/satellite losing 14,000 subscribers a day
New numbers show that traditional TV providers lost record numbers of subscribers in Q1 2019: 1.28 million Americans to be exact. That works out to 14,000 ditching their Pay TV subscription every single day. The consultancy that published the report, informitv Multiscreen Index, says that the top 10 TV providers saw losses across the board.
The return of Court TV
This week, Court TV launched as a free over-the-air channel in some markets. The network also launched as a free streaming channel on Roku, with Fire TV and Apple TV coming soon.
