YouTube TV experienced its first-ever quarterly subscriber loss in what appears to be an ominous sign of increasing churn for the live TV streaming sector, according to a new report from analyst Craig Moffett.
“vMVPDs” is the industry term for subscription streaming services that allow consumers to watch live TV without a cable connection. Others include Hulu with live TV, Sling, FuboTV, and Philo TV.
“Serial churners” have become a major concern for streamers, but until now, the phenomenon was mostly confined to “SVODs” — or streaming entertainment sites like Netflix.
Now, higher churn appears to be plaguing all areas of the streaming world, including live TV, as households weighed down by inflation cut back drastically on non-essential spending.
The development doesn’t bode well for legacy Hollywood studios that are counting on streaming to help make up for the losses brought on by cord cutting. Live sports programming, in particular, has long been massively profitable for the studios.
In his report, Craig Moffett predicted that live TV streaming services will account for half of the pay TV market by 2028.
The increase in churn and seasonality means more instability for studios, which rely on viewer statistics to charge advertisers.
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