CHANGE: Cable TV’s collapse deepens: ‘It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no longer any floor.’

Those 1.6 million subscribers lost in the second quarter account for 6.9% of the industry’s base, and there’s no reason to think the slide is going to slow down at all, analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson write: “It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no longer any floor.”

As we’ve discussed here before, a few years ago there was a thought that digital pay-TV distributors like YouTube TV and Hulu Live would replace losses at conventional distributors, but that’s no longer true.

And those digital distributors are increasingly seeing “seasonality” in their business — consumers sign up for them in the fall to watch the NFL, and churn them out at the beginning of the year. That’s why YouTube TV lost subscribers for the first time in Q1, and only added 50,000 subscribers in Q2. The service added 300,000 subscribers in the same quarter last year.

When the content was free, people watched. When the content is worth paying for, people pay for it. But expecting people to pay for content that isn’t worth it is a stretch, particularly with so many competing options from videogames to Twitter/X.