Televisions stacked in a column
The pay-TV business is looking bleak.
  • Pay TV just suffered its worst quarter in history — a stunning 6.9% drop.
  • The TV industry used to hope digital services like YouTube TV would make up for losses from regular TV.
  • But that's not happening. In fact, YouTube TV just had its first quarterly subscriber loss ever.

If you pay any attention to the TV business, you know that pay-TV subscriptions have been falling for years. People who used to pay for TV are cutting the cord, and younger people aren't bothering to sign up for pay TV at all.

The trend is only accelerating: The first three months of 2024 were the worst the pay-TV business has ever seen, according to analysts at MoffettNathanson. They estimated that the industry lost a record 2.37 million subscribers — a drop of 6.9%.