Data revealed that the number of traditional pay TV households in the United States stood at around 58 million in 2023. This figure will likely drop further over the next few years and amount to less than 41 million by 2028. Meanwhile, digital pay TV is becoming increasingly popular. Pay TV is fighting an uphill battle The United States is one of the largest pay TV markets worldwide based on penetration. But even though millions of viewers frequently tune in to watch their favorite shows, news broadcasts, and sports events on the small screen, the U.S. pay TV industry is facing enormous challenges. More viewers are canceling their cable or satellite subscriptions than ever, be it because of mounting prices, limited content offerings, or the proliferation of over-the-top (OTT) video services and streaming platforms. Based on the latest data, over half of TV households in the country are currently without a telco, cable, or satellite TV provider. Can cable companies combat subscriber loss? The cord-cutting movement and other recent changes in consumer behavior have had a substantial impact on the pay TV landscape and its players. In 2023, U.S. pay TV providers suffered a combined net subscriber loss of around five million viewers. This downward trend also extends to the largest pay TV providers in the U.S., such as Charter and Comcast. However, they have recently ventured into the world of streaming to offset subscriber losses, but whether this expansion will be enough to effectively combat churn remains to be seen.

Data on the share of adults who subscribed to a cable TV service in the United States as of January 2023 showed that adults aged 65 years or above were most likely to be subscribers, with half of them stating that they are currently subscribing to cable TV services. By contrast, respondents between the ages of 35 and 44 were the most likely to have subscribed to cable in the past but then cut the cord later on.

As of January 2024, around 9.7 million households in Canada subscribed to pay TV, down from nearly 9.98 million recorded in the previous year. Cable was the most common platform type to access pay TV. However, while the number of subscribers to cable and satellite TV recently declined, telecommunications and IPTV subscription households grew from 2023 to 2024.

The pay TV provider with the largest number of subscribers at the end of 2024 was Charter, amassing nearly 13 million customers. Second was Comcast, followed by DirecTV and the online TV service YouTube TV. With pay TV providers losing market shares to video streaming services, the number of subscribers has slipped significantly in recent years, with no provider having beyond 20 million customers.

In fiscal year 2020 there were 103 million cable television households across India. India has 100 percent digital cable television network due to its mandatory regulation. Rising satellite television and digital video access along with rising costs for cable subscriptions as well as the impact of COVID-19 pandemic seem to have reduced the monopoly of cable television in the country in 2020.

The number of net subscriber losses among pay TV providers in the United States in 2023 amounted to 5.04 million, up from 4.6 million in the previous year. Traditional pay TV companies lose more and more subscribers each year, whilst at the same time, video streaming companies have been flourishing.

The largest cable networks of Fox Corporation were FOX News and FS1, with 67 million subscribers each recorded in 2024. Each channel of the U.S.-based broadcaster showed declines in subscription numbers.

Similar to other pay TV operators, Comcast lost a substantial number of subscribers in recent years. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the company recorded about 12.52 million pay TV subscribers, down by nearly two million in just one year. Pay TV market in the U.S. Founded in 1963, American mass media conglomerate Comcast is one of the leading broadcasting and pay TV companies in the world. The Philadelphia-headquartered company has a strong presence in its domestic market, and belongs to the largest pay TV providers in the U.S. Charter, Dish TV, and DirecTV are the company’s main competitors in the American pay TV market. Comcast's segments Nearly half of Comcast Corporation's revenue was generated by its connectivity and platforms segment, with about 81 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In contrast, the revenue of content and experiences, including media, studios, and theme parks, amounted to roughly 43 billion U.S. dollars.

As of 2023, around 4.52 million people had subscribed to cable TV digital services in Taiwan, which was about the same number as of total cable TV subscribers that year. There were 64 cable TV operators in the island that year.

The graph shows quarterly number of cable subscribers in the United States form the first quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2015, broken down by service. According to the source, in the last measured quarter there were 49 million TV subscribers and 53.5 million broadband subscribers.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Cox had around 3.05 million cable subscribers in the U.S. This marked a decline of about 300,000 subscribers compared with the number recorded in the same period of the previous year.

During a survey held in January 2023, 40 percent of respondents stated that their household was currently subscribing to a cable television service, compared to 47 percent who said the same in a study conducted in January 2019. Cord-cutting is a major problem for TV providers as viewers turn to the internet to seek out and enjoy their favorite content on streaming services.

The number of cable television subscribers fluctuated during the observed period of time. According to the data, in 2017 the number of cable television subscribers increased by 1.3 percent compared to 2016, amounting to 4.2 million. However, in 2022, the number of cable television subscribers decreased and reached 3.9 million.

The graph presents the most important benefits of cable TV among cable subscribers in the United States as of December 2017. During the survey, 42.6 percent of cable subscribers stated that the most important benefit of cable TV was the ability to channel surf.

Approximately 32.38 million households in Japan had subscribed to registered cable television facilities as of 2021. The number of households with cable television subscriptions continuously increased in recent years. The vast majority of households in Japan had subscribed to services broadcasting self-produced programs, while rebroadcasting-only services had a far smaller number of subscribers.

In 2023, around 4.52 million people subscribed to cable TV services in Taiwan. The number of digital pay channel subscriptions of cable TV amounted to about 1.52 million.

The number of cable TV subscribers in Turkey generally increased with some oscillation from the first quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2024. The number of subscribers peaked in the fourth quarter of 2023 at more than 1.47 million. As of the second quarter of 2024, there were over 1.46 million cable subscribers in Turkey.

The graph presents the share of cable subscribers who would consider cutting the cord from their cable TV subscription in the United States as of December 2017. During the survey, 56 percent of cable subscribers stated that they would consider cutting the cord from their cable TV subscription.

In 2020, Televisa had 4.28 million video cable subscribers, 5.43 million data cable subscribers, 4.3 million voice cable subscribers, and 75 thousand mobile cable subscribers. In total, the cable segment generated 45.4 billion Mexican pesos in revenue that year.

In 2023, Grupo Televisa had around 4.06 million cable TV subscribers, down from 4.46 million a year earlier – an annual decrease of nine percent.