Cable TV Subscribers at 17 Year Low
March 21, 2007
I have to say I was a bit surprised to see that “Cable penetration dropped to a 17-year low of 61.3% in February, as pay TV competition from direct-broadcast satellite and telephone rivals continues to eat into the basic-subscriber counts of cable distributors”, according to analysis from Nielsen Media Research data conducted by the Television Bureau of Advertising by way of MultiChannel News
For as far back as I can remember cable always had a resounding lead over satellite and IPTV providers and while 61% penetration isn’t anything to scoff at (considering the overall base) the nearly 40% market-share held by satellite and IPTV providers is hardly chicken-feed either. I have to wonder what brought about this apparent shift from the more conventional cable TV services to alternative pay-TV subscription methods.
Now for their part the cable industry doesn’t specifically refute that they lost market-share but Ira Sussman from the ‘Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau’ states that “The February 2006 numbers reported by Nielsen didn’t include homes with digital-video recorders, which makes satellite growth in the past year appear greater than it actually was.”
Sussman expects a recalculated report that reflects those DVR households later in the year, this revised report should give us a more accurate representation of the gains made by direct broadcast satellite of late, but by all accounts no one’s arguing that cable has indeed lost market-share to other pay-TV subscription services.
Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under HDTV Programming
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5 Responses to “Cable TV Subscribers at 17 Year Low”
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It’s not all satellite and IPTV, a lot of it is OTA customers who don’t want to pay anything for their TV. It would be interesting to see the breakdown of the remaining 40%.
Good point Davis, yeah I’d be interested to see the actual breakdown.
I’m one of those who gave up cable for OTA broadcasts. I generally only watched the local affiliates (CBS and FOX) and when I can get those in high-definition for free with a pair of bunny ears, I didn’t see the value in subscribing anymore.
As Davis points out, I for one am one of those that dropped cable in favour of OTA. It’s been a real good decision for me so far.
If they didn’t count DVRs for cable did they count them for satellite? and maybe its because of the lack luster service from at&t and comcast thats driving people away from cable. Just a thought.