Cable TV companies have been hemorrhaging viewers according to a new report from the Leichtman Research Group, which monitors the cable TV and streaming markets. According to the data, cable TV companies lost 1,820,943 subscribers over just the first 91 days of 2023, which means that 20,000 subscribers canceled their subscriptions every day.

Assuming that trend continued throughout the year would mean that over the course of 2023, 7 million Americans would cancel their cable TV subscriptions. Data from the second quarter of 2023 will become available shortly. August is when numerous cable and satellite subscription services issue their second quarter earnings reports, and those reports should give a greater insight into the cord cutting trend in 2023.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2023, there were 60 million Americans who still had traditional cable TV service subscriptions.

Many TV executives had pinned their hopes on the rise of streaming services such as Hulu, Sling TV, Fubo, and YouTube TV, to offset the losses from cord-cutters canceling their cable TV packages, however so far that has not worked out for them. In the first three months of 2023, streaming services lost a combined 394,000 subscribers.

It appears from surveys that cord cutters are abandoning live TV in favor of on-demand libraries. The only reason people report for needing a live TV service is to catch live sports games.

As a result media companies are trying to pivot to focus on growing their on-demand streaming services. Over the previous few years, this has produced a flood of new streaming services, including HBO Max, NBC Peacock, AMC+, Disney+, Discovery+, Paramount+, and more, as established media companies have sought to field their own offerings in the space. However most reports indicate that presently these services are losing money, for the most part.

Now comes the wait until the August reports are released, and investors can see just what direction the sector is heading in.