The Death of Satellite TV
Just a few weeks ago, Dish announced to the SEC that it may have trouble continuing as a TV provider. In the fourth quarter of last year, Dish lost 314,000 TV subscribers. In terms of company revenue, that means the loss of over $30M per month or over $375M per year.
And that is only in the last quarter. Over the last ten years, Dish has lost 7.38 million TV subscribers to cord cutting. Again, assuming that each customer pays a conservative $100 per month, the total loss of revenue between 2014 and 2024 is staggering. Its in the billions.
And DirecTV is not doing much better. Over the same time period (2014 – 2024) DirecTV has lost 8.9M subscribers. For DirecTV, they are making approximately less than $12B less per year than they were making in 2014.
Needless to say, the writing is on the wall. As a business you can’t lose that much money and remain a viable company. It no longer makes sense to fund the launching of new satellites. It no longer makes sense to upgrade your technology.
Admittedly, DirecTV took a bold step recently. They have allowed their customers to opt out of broadcast TV. This saves their subscribers about $30 per month but it also denies those subscribers access to Sunday NFL games on CBS, FOX, and NBC. In order to get these channels for free, DirecTV customers can hook up an antenna.
Dish tried the opposite approach. They founded Sling, an internet based TV service, that gives subscribers access to cable channels but not broadcast TV channels. In our opinion, this is a better solution than DirecTV’s recent initiative. Sling does not require a satellite or any boxes. All you need is a decent internet connection and a Smart TV. Of course, with Sling you will still need an antenna to get the local stations and the NFL games.
To get the most high quality channels with the lowest monthly subscription cost, we recommend an outdoor antenna paired with Sling. This way you get the same channel packages you got with Dish or DirecTV at a fraction of the cost. And the best part…even if you cancel Sling, you still get your locals, in HD, for free.
