EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—DirecTV said this week that is laying off approximately 10% of its managerial staff, citing a downturn in subscriptions as more viewers cut the cord from pay TV.
“The entire pay-TV industry is impacted by the secular decline and the increasing rates to secure and distribute programming,” the company said in a statement. “We’re adjusting our operations costs to align with these changes and will continue to invest in new entertainment products and service enhancements.”
DirecTV has about 10,000 employees in total, according to credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, making it the third largest pay-TV provider in the U.S., behind Comcast and Charter.
While DirecTV, which was spun off from AT&T in 2021, no longer releases subscription numbers, it reportedly lost a half million subscribers in Q3 2022, according to Fitch, which said the downturn in subscriptions to the satellite provider have recently accelerated. DirecTV currently has approximately 13.3 million subscribers.
DirecTV has been focusing more on its streaming service DirecTV Stream, which was rebranded from its U-Verse service last year. Although it still has a considerably small number of subscribers, a report from MoffetNathanson last year indicated that it had a 175% increase in streaming minutes.
The layoffs come at a particularly challenging time for the company, which on Sunday, broadcast its final NFL Sunday Ticket service. Starting in the 2023-2024 season that popular out-of-market service is moving to Google’s YouTube TV and YouTube Premium Channel in a $2B annual deal.
Cord-cutting has accelerated in recent years—last month, MoffetNathanson reported that the trend hit new records in Q3 2022, with total pay TV distribution declining by 6.3%.
