Sling TV lost 56,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2020, bringing the overall number down to 2.25 million. This marks another quarter in which Sling TV has seen a decrease in its subscribers and at a time when consuming video at home is at a high.
Sling TV has always remained high up on the subscriber number list. The service was one of the first to launch and since then, it has maintained a focus on affordability, helping the service keep hold of, and attract new subscribers. The approach has resulted in Sling TV typically adding subscribers each quarter. However, that started to change recently with the service having now encountered multiple quarterly declines.
In February, Dish confirmed that Sling TV closed out the year with 2.59 million subscribers, a decline of around 100,000 in the last three months of 2019. Since then, the company’s first quarter 2020 results indicated another subscriber drop and this time by 281,000. This resulted in the subscriber base dropping to 2.31 million at the end of the first quarter.
Following the latest confirmation by Dish of a 56,000 subscriber decline, this represents yet another consecutive quarter where Sling has seen a decline, although it is significantly less of a decline compared to the previous two quarters. Beyond Sling, Dish TV also lost 40,000 subscribers during the same quarter.
How Sling TV compares to the others
While Sling TV appears to have entered a period of continued quarterly decline, following a long period of continued quarter increases, it is not alone. AT&T TV NOW has also been losing subscribers each quarter and for much longer than Sling TV. As a result, AT&T TV NOW has seen its subscriber base diminish compared to what it was a couple of years ago. In contrast, Sling TV remains above the two million marker and that’s significant, as it means the service continues to be one of the most popular.
YouTube TV is understood to have recently passed the two million mark although the exact number remains unknown, making it unclear whether it has more or less subscribers than Sling TV. However, there’s far more clarity when it comes to Hulu Live TV as that has been the runaway success over the last two years. In fact, Disney only recently announced its latest quarter results, confirming another Hulu Live TV increase, bringing the overall total number of live TV subscribers to 3.4 million.
Source: Dish
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