Traditional Providers Losses, 2nd Quarter 2024 Edition

[Bruce]

Now along the regular cable/satellite churn we are seeing some streaming services shutting down

Which ones have shut down, the only one I know about is Boomerang, which was a extreme niche service and content will be on MAX.

They can bundle all those service together to save a few dollars, but I won't sub because you can't just turn one of them off.

Of course you can, I could go into my Hulu account right now and drop Disney+/ESPN+ and only get Hulu

It's just another way of forcing you to subscribe to a service you don't watch.

I am quite happy with the bundle, but the difference between Paid Live TV and Streaming Services, I can only get all those channels, with streaming, I am not forced to, there are many of them I do not subscribe to.

High priced sports channels are even going to their own high priced service.

I keep expecting right’s fees to go down for the non Football sports, based on the ratings, they should, but the NBA, whose ratings have been dropping the last few years, just pulled off a 3 way $7B a year deal.

MLB should be the first to see a reduction, the 2023 Ratings were down over 60% from 2020, 11 Million Households then vs 4 Million in 2023.

 

[ncted]

Which ones have shut down, the only one I know about is Boomerang, which was a extreme niche service and content will be on MAX.

Well, a few come to mind:

CNN+
Filmstruck
Seeso

 

[Bruce]

I doubt they are as Fubo pays for total sub fee. Fubo issue is that they are not being given the option to only pay for these.

Actually, that is a myth, they could of just carried the channels carrying sports, but at a higher rate, if they carry all the channels, they get a bigger discount for the per sub fees of each channel.

The laws don't require the same per sub fees, they don't require that Disney, Fox, WB offer the same package to Fubo, or even offer Fubo any content. Disney, Fox, and WB are correct that the supreme court has already said they can do this. It's a free market, they are allowed to offer exclusives, so there is nothing Fubo can do. Fubo is correct it will hurt their business but this isn't CABLE, there aren't established laws.

That has been Fubo’s main argument in yesterdays court hearing, this will put them out of business, but considering they have been losing both subscribers ( down to 1.4M) and cash, that seems inevitable.

Disney, Fox, and WB, after they win this lawsuit, could then stop offering this content online outside of their service with Venu.

Disney is still starting up a ESPN service early next year.

The NFL, College, NBA, etc may have some contractual constraints but it's all possible.

There was, but no longer with the new deals signed recently , all of ESPN’s content can be on Traditional, streaming, Venu, ESPN+ and the new service starting up next year.

It could then force Congress to act but they haven't done anything to the NFL and their exclusive streaming service.

To comment on that belongs in the Political part of the site, but I no longer post in there.

 

[Bruce]

Well, a few come to mind:

CNN+
Filmstruck
Seeso

CNN is thinking about trying again, but like Boomerang, is part of MAX.

The other two is very specialized, not for the mainstream.

When a service like AMC+ shuts down, then we should talk, maybe in the near future.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Which ones have shut down, the only one I know about is Boomerang, which was a extreme niche service and content will be on MAX.

Of course you can, I could go into my Hulu account right now and drop Disney+/ESPN+ and only get Hulu

I am quite happy with the bundle, but the difference between Paid Live TV and Streaming Services, I can only get all those channels, with streaming, I am not forced to, there are many of them I do not subscribe to.

I keep expecting right’s fees to go down for the non Football sports, based on the ratings, they should, but the NBA, whose ratings have been dropping the last few years, just pulled off a 3 way $7B a year deal.

MLB should be the first to see a reduction, the 2023 Ratings were down over 60% from 2020, 11 Million Households then vs 4 Million in 2023.

Boomerang streaming service will be shut down on Sept. 30. I heard and some other minor Streaming apps like Freevee I saw on You tube that Amazon was supposed to shut their free service down in the second quarter of this year. Motor trend Plus was shut down in March of this year. Chicken soup for the soul app , Entertainment streaming, Popcorn Flix, Crackle are all supposed to shut down or have done so already. I get this info from the You Tube site and you search for Cord Cutter News. He has a video out just about every day talking about streaming and traditional cable/satellite news.

 

[zippyfrog]

Which ones have shut down, the only one I know about is Boomerang, which was a extreme niche service and content will be on MAX.

The two that come to my mind, because I tried them both, are Playstation Vue (they were one of the originals that had both NBC Sports Chicago and NBC Sports Chicago+ as full time streaming channels) and then T-Mobile's TVision.

 

[Bruce]

The two that come to my mind, because I tried them both, are Playstation Vue (they were one of the originals that had both NBC Sports Chicago and NBC Sports Chicago+ as full time streaming channels) and then T-Mobile's TVision.

Vue ended in 2020.

T-Mobile’s service in 2021, it lasted all of 5 months.

Neither are recent and barely had any subscribers.

T-Mobile is already shutting down its live TV service, partners with YouTube TV and Philo

TVision Live was announced only five months ago.

www.theverge.com

 

[Bruce]

Hulu Live lost 100,000.

Now at 1,163,000 lost this quarter.

Dish/Echostar reports on Friday.

Dish / Echostar numbers are out.

While Dish lost more ( about 190,000) , gains for Sling helped to offset those losses, Net Pay-TV subscribers decreased approximately 104,000 in the second quarter.

So, now at 1,267,000 gone.

EchoStar Announces Financial Results for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2024

/PRNewswire/ -- EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) announced its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024. Six Months Ended June 30,...

www.prnewswire.com

 

[ncted]

Dish / Echostar numbers are out.

While Dish lost more ( about 190,000) , gains for Sling helped to offset those losses, Net Pay-TV subscribers decreased approximately 104,000 in the second quarter.

So, now at 1,267,000 gone.

EchoStar Announces Financial Results for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2024

/PRNewswire/ -- EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) announced its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024. Six Months Ended June 30,...

www.prnewswire.com

So, Sling added 86,000 subs? I wonder if that the value proposition of Sling is appealing given the cooling economy. I've seen lots of reports talking about people scaling back their expenditures.

 

[MikeD-C05]

So, Sling added 86,000 subs? I wonder if that the value proposition of Sling is appealing given the cooling economy. I've seen lots of reports talking about people scaling back their expenditures.

Sling TV is much cheaper for programming and no FEES like the satellite version. Unless you count the $5.00 for a bigger cloud to record things on the dvr part of the app. You can also use an Air tv device like 2 tuner or 4 tuner Air Tv Anywhere and an antenna and your own hard drive and create a place to record all the ota networks and it is integrated into the Sling TV app. Complete guide data for the ota locals/sub channels as wel, unlike DISH sat service. l So you can save a lot of money compared to any other service.

My mom and Dad I put on this service with sling Blue for $45.00 and they only add sling orange for the sports channels in the fall and cut it off come the next year. Saves more money. I actually have the four tuner Air Tv Anywhere device at my house and use my antenna for them to have their ota locals - since they got their roof replaced and they didn't put back the antenna. They watch them using the Sling App. Cuts down on trips over there to fix what ever problem they are having with their locals, since I control them here.

 

[Bruce]

Final numbers are kind of out-

At 1,214,000 lost this quarter, but that does not include the estimated numbers from Cox, DirecTV and YTTV.

Cox has been averaging 200,000 lost per quarter (estimated).

DirecTV has been averaging 500,000 lost per quarter ( thanks to Fitch Reporting, we know the numbers).

YTTV had a estimated lost of 150,000 last quarter, this quarter is anyone’s guess.

So, this quarter, a estimated loss of 1.7M, without YTTV, could of gained or lost, usually we find out in about a month.

Along we the loss of 2.3M in the first quarter, 4M lost in 2024 at the midway point.

Q2 Cord-Cutting Update: Most U.S. Operators Bled Fewer Customers, But Revenue Is Beginning To Take a Serious Hit

Most publicly traded U.S. pay TV operators lost fewer subscribers in Q2

www.nexttv.com

 

[Bruce]

Final number are out from the News’ services.

Highlights-

With the estimated loss of DirecTV, we are at 1.62 million subs in Q2 lost.

4 Million lost for the first 6 Months of the year.

All of paid Live TV ( Traditional, Streaming) is at of 68.76 million.

Cable/Satellite is at, roughly, 50 Million, in 2017, they had 100 Million, that means they have lost half of their subscribers in just 7 years.

If Paid Live TV lose another 4 Million in the second half of 2024, by the end of the year, more households will not have a Live TV Service then do ( out of 131M Households in the United States).

YTTV only gained 50,000, Hulu Live, Fubo, etc, all lost subscribers, so people are just giving up on Live TV, about 1.5 Million this quarter, over 62 Million Households total, do not have Traditional Paid Live TV as of now.

Second quarter results left pay-TV subscribers declining at a rate of 6.9%, slightly worse than the -6.8%.

But, taking out vMVPDs (YTTV for example), the rate of decline among "traditional" pay-TV providers (cable, satellite and telco) was -12.6%, worse than -11.3% a year earlier.

US pay-TV sheds 1.62M in Q2... and the Disney-DirecTV blackout doesn't help

US pay-TV lost 1.62 million subs in Q2 and a 'mindboggling' 4 million subs in the first half of 2024, says MoffettNathanson. Meanwhile, a blackout of Disney channels on DirecTV presents an even gloomier outlook for pay-TV.

www.lightreading.com