Sling TV is growing even as other skinny bundle services, namely DirecTV Now struggles. Dish’s streaming service closed 2018 with 2.42 million subscribers after adding 47,000 in the fourth quarter of the year. The subscriber growth though is not equal to the number of satellite subscribers Dish lost which was 381,000.
This is the new reality of TV. The legacy services are losing customers faster than their slickly marketed alternatives can add them. Sling TV though is the leader of the streaming TV sector far outstripping its rivals. DirecTV Now had 1.86 million subscribers at last report, YouTube TV had 300,000 subscribers in January 2018, while Hulu had 450,000.
The number of subscribers for cable replacement services may point the way to where the market for big bundles truly is. Or may reflect the still relative lack of understanding of the alternatives out there.
