According to the latest quarterly report by the Leichtman Research Group, the major pay-TV providers in the United States lost around 1,955,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. The numbers were similar to those in the first quarters of 2021 (1,910,000) and 2020 (1,960,000.)

In the quarter, cable companies lost 825,000 subscribers, the “other” category lost 625,000, and vMVPDs lost 505,000. Every provider listed in the survey lost subscribers in the quarter.

“Pay-TV net losses of about 1.95 million in 1Q 2022 were similar to the net losses in the first quarters of 2021 and 2020,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc, said in the release. “Over the past year, top pay-TV providers had a net loss of 4,735,000 subscribers, similar to a loss of about 4,820,000 over the prior year.”

On the cable side, Comcast lost 512,000 subscribers, Charter lost 112,000, and Cox dropped 80,000. Altice lost 73,600 in the first quarter. In late April, Comcast and Charter, who are the two largest cable companies in the United States, announced a joint venture to develop new streaming products. Comcast, as of the end of the first quarter, had 17.6 million subscribers while Charter had 15.7 million.

In the “other” category, which consists of telco and satellite companies, DirecTV lost an estimated 300,000 subscribers in the quarter, while Dish TV lost 228,000. Since DirecTV is no longer a public company, its results are only an estimate.

Meanwhile, Verizon Fios dropped 78,000 subscribers in the quarter, while Frontier’s satellite service lost another 17,000.

And in the vMVPD category, Hulu + Live TV posted a loss of 200,000 subscribers, bringing it to 4.1 million, while Sling TV lost 234,000 and Fubo TV lost 73,652.

Alphabet does not release quarterly subscriber results for YouTube TV, so that is not included in the Leitchman survey. However, one report stated that the Google Services division had strong results, which were driven by “more subscribers for YouTube TV, as well as YouTube Music and Premium.”

Leichtman had reported back in March that the major pay-TV providers had lost about 4.7 million subscribers over the course of 2021 after losing 4.87 million the previous year. In 2021, the cable companies lost about 2.7 million net subscribers, the “other” category lost about 2.9 million, and vMVPDs gained 895,000.

“While the pay-TV industry continued to lose subscribers, net losses in 2021 were fairly similar to those in recent years,” Bruce Leichtman said in that release.  “In 2021, the top pay-TV providers had a net loss of about 4.7 million subscribers, compared to a pro forma loss of about 4.9 million subscribers in 2020, and a loss of 4.1 million in 2019.”

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters.