AT&T TV NOW subscribers declined by 68,000 in the second quarter of 2020, resulting in yet another quarter that has seen the live TV service’s subscriber number fall.
Formerly known as DIRECTV NOW, AT&T TV NOW used to be one of the commanding forces in the live TV streaming market, boasting one of the highest subscriber numbers around. However, over the last couple of years, AT&T has routinely increased prices while at the same time, reduced the number of channels available. This has led to a series of quarterly announcements where the subscriber number has continued to drop.
As part of the company’s second quarter earnings report, AT&T confirmed AT&T TV NOW lost 68,000 subscribers during the last three months, with the company putting the loss down to “less promotional activity.” Similar to previous quarters, the subscriber decline was not just limited to AT&T TV NOW with the company also confirming that premium TV subscribers overall – including AT&T TV, DIRECTV and U-verse) declined by 886,000 during the three months.
Another quarter, another subscriber decline
The fact AT&T TV NOW has lost more subscribers is hardly even news anymore, considering this is a pattern that has continued quarter over quarter. If anything, the loss during the last quarter was not as bad as the previous quarter which saw the number of subscribers drop by 138,000. Likewise, comparing year over year and the decline has also eased up, considering AT&T TV NOW lost 168,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2019 – when the service was still operating as DIRECTV NOW.
Of course, one of the reasons for the slowdown in subscriber decline is the overall number of subscribers to begin with. While there was once a time when AT&T’s live TV streaming service was operating in the millions of subscribers, those times have changed with the service now holding on to less than one million subscribers. As the overall number continues to decline, it would be expected that the rate of quarterly subscriber decline would continue to lessen. Although, that doesn’t change the fact that AT&T TV NOW is still continuing to lose subscribers each quarter.
The same is also true for the company’s TV division in general with AT&T seemingly undisturbed by the continued decline across its TV services. One of the reasons for this might be that in spite of the losses, AT&T posted a 6.4 percent increase in premium video ARPU, during the second quarter of 2020.
Source: AT&T
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