YouTube TV is estimated to have lost around 150,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2024. If correct, this is notable for two reasons. Firstly, YouTube TV very rarely releases subscriber number updates. Secondly, YouTube TV very rarely loses subscribers, that we know of.
Earlier this year, Google confirmed that YouTube TV was delivering live TV to more than eight million subscribers. This made YouTube TV the most popular live TV streaming service overall, and by some margin, considering the next closest is Hulu Live TV with around 4.5 million subscribers.
According to MoffettNathanson’s Cord-Cutting Monitor Q1 2024: The Third Wheel report published today, YouTube TV’s first quarter of 2024 resulted in a loss of around 150,000 subscribers. Whether such a lost would take YouTube TV back down below eight million again is unknown, but any loss is a notable one.
While it remains unclear if YouTube TV has actually lost subscribers, and if so, why, it stands to reason the NFL could have played a role. Specifically, the end of the football season resulting in subscribers that only signed up for NFL Sunday Ticket canceling their live TV subscription.
Even though this would also suggest that those same subscribers are likely to return again when the new season starts back up, a loss could indicate that YouTube TV’s subscriber base is beginning to feel the effects of seasonality, especially in terms of sports. Seasonality has always tended to be a real issue for Fubo, resulting in the sports-focused service seeing major subscriber increases and decreases based on the time of the year.
On the topic of other services, it wasn’t just YouTube TV that MoffettNathanson estimates lost subscribers during the quarter. The report suggested the industry as a whole lost more than two million subscribers during the first three months of the year.
In reality, the TV industry losing subscribers isn’t new, as that has largely been the trend for some time now. However, it now looks like YouTube TV, for the first time, might have lost its immunity to wider industry patterns.
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