Cable losing subscribers in record numbers

15 years ago

“Cable networks lost 130,000 subscribers in the third quarter, the industry’s second straight quarter of sequential declines, estimates Credit Suisse. The pay TV industry, which up until the until the second quarter of this year had never in history posted a decline in customers from one period to the next, could end up losing 1.5 percent subscribers annually if the shift to Internet providers continues, the research firm said,” John Melloy reports for CNBC.

“Netflix, Apple TV, Google TV, Microsoft’s X-Box, and other broadband-based systems are already causing many customers, especially younger viewers, to drop cable,” Melloy reports. “‘Eventually just as mobile phones eroded the need for a land line, the mix of Internet TV choices will cause the cable subscribers to depart their cable providers,’ said Simon Baker of Baker Avenue Asset Management. The money manager is looking to buy companies that help speed up the delivery of content over broadband networks.”