A new report from S&P Global Market Intelligence highlights the painful relationship between streaming and pay TV, showing double-digit gains for streaming services in the third quarter coinciding with double-digit losses across traditional video subscribers.
Overall, the report found that the leading 29 U.S. video services reached a combined 406.9 million subscriptions, with Comcast’s Peacock Premium and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max posting the strongest annual growth rates, up 28.2% and 23.2%, respectively.
The report noted that Netflix, Disney+, Max, Peacock and Paramount+ all enjoyed solid subscriber growth in Q3. Netflix ended the quarter with 76.1 million U.S. subs, the most of any streamer, followed by Hulu (52 million), Disney+ (50.2 million). Paramount+ (37.2 million) and Peacock Premium (36.4 million) rounded out the top five.
The report also noted that while subscriber losses persisted for traditional cable video operators as consumers continued to cut the pay-TV cord, new bundles and hybrid plans from Comcast and Charter Communications could help mitigate some of the pain moving forward.
In contrast, a seasonal boost from the return of college and NFL football helped virtual multichannel operators overall add about 1.6 million net new subs versus the year-ago period, although much of that growth was concentrated within YouTube TV.
