DirecTV Now Is on Pace to Become the Biggest U.S. Digital Bundler in 2019

By Scott Porch Twitter @scottporch
Published June 21, 2018, 2:00 p.m. ET

More On:

cordcutters

DirecTV Now is on track to hit 2.4 million subscribers by the end of 2018 and become the biggest U.S. digital bundler in 2019, according to a new research report. The report also projects that U.S. streaming-bundle services will hit a combined 9.2 million U.S. subscribers by the end of 2018 and 24 million by the end of 2022.

“New live, multichannel streaming TV offers continue to evolve, filling programming gaps, improving transmission quality and adding new features at attractive rates,” UBS analyst John Hodulik wrote in the report. “As a result, we believe these offers will keep siphoning off traditional TV subscribers.”

Hodulik noted that he expects streaming TV to comprise 25% of all bundled-TV subscribers — including local cable, satellite, telco and streaming services — in the next five years. He listed the primary drivers of the shift to streaming as continued improvement of streaming quality, bigger content packages, and a better viewing experience with better interfaces, more on-demand shows and more commercial-free shows than traditional TV.

DirecTV Now, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV are projected to be the big gainers over the next five years with Sling TV growing more slowly, upstarts like Philo, FuboTV and the newly launched AT&T WatchTV gaining a foothold, and PlayStation Vue actually losing subscribers with Sony putting few marketing resources behind the service.

Scott Porch writes about the TV business for Decider, is a contributing writer for Playboy, and hosts a podcast about new digital content called Consumed with Scott Porch. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.