DIRECTV and DISH together account for more pay-TV subscribers than any other service. Certainly when you take out those Comcast and Spectrum customers who say they subscribe to pay-TV but are actually using captive streaming through their provider networks, that's got to be the case.
Why take away Comcast and Charter?
First either of them has almost the same amount of subscribers then Dish and DirecTV's Satellite Services combined.
DirecTV-About 7-8 Million ( out of 10.5 Million, the rest subscribe to Stream, by internet and Uverse)
Dish 6.47 Million
Comcast 13.6 Million
Spectrum 13.1 Million
Both companies have been actively pushing customers away from cable boxes and toward apps and custom streaming devices. When DIRECTV and DISH do that, the industry calls it "losing subscribers." When Comcast does it, apparently those people still count.
DirecTV include the internet subs in their total numbers, Dish separates them as Sling , but included in the total of their TV subscribers, but I would not do that, different service.
Also, there is no evidence that those leaving DirecTV/Dish are going to the TV streaming services of the same company.
I'm not going to tell you that satellite TV's subscriber numbers are where they were in 2010, when about 40 million homes had satellite TV.
It hit 36 Million total, not 40.
That was about one quarter of the total number of homes in the country.
Nope, today we have 131 Million Households, in 2010, we had almost 117 Million (thank you google), so it was more then 25%.
Today, it is about 11%, really has fallen.
Those days are over. Of course they are. Streaming video wasn't really possible in those days for most people. Today it's so common we don't even think about it.
And extremely thankful for it.
But that doesn't stop me from saying that satellite TV is still huge. There's something over 25 million homes and businesses still using satellite TV.
Way too high, you are saying about 11 Million Businesses then with Satellite TV.
There are only 17,000 Sports Bars in the US.
There are only 749,404 restaurants in the US, how many of them would have Sat.TV, specially since that list includes places like Denny's, which definitely would not have DirecTV.
There are around 1,500 – 2,200 Casinos.
So, if every one of the above had Sat.TV, we are still not at a million, where does the other 10 Million come from (using your numbers).
For businesses in particular, it's the only option in most cases. Cable TV isn't available for many commercial installations. Streaming is flat out illegal in public-facing businesses at this point.
I thought Peacock for Businesses streamed via Ever Pass.
Fact is, satellite TV is here, and as they used to say, get used to it.
DirecTV already announced it will no longer be building new Satellites, also about 2-3 years from being unprofitable.
Dish is already there thanks to the spectrum build.
More have left DirecTV then stayed, that continues everyday, when a average of 5500 leaves.
When I started using satellite TV, it was still very much an early adopter medium. You bought the parts at your local store, all in cash, and you were expected to put up the dish and aim it yourself. Even a decade later in the early 2000s, satellite TV was what they called a "disruptor." Folks were leaving cable because of what we then called "high prices" (usually about $60 a month) for DIRECTV's much lower priced packages and greater selection.
I purchased it and put my own Dish up on the roof, thought nothing can get better, times have changed.
At that time, there was a very large and robust enthusiast community. And let's be honest, we all needed each other. A lot of satellite hardware, including early DVRs, didn't work the way we thought it should. We needed to swap stories and tips or none of us would be watching TV much at all. Those enthusiast forums were a lifesaver in those days.
A total PITA sometimes, things are a lot easier today with streaming.
Today, satellite TV is in a very stable place.
Last year, Dish lost 1.2 Million ( including Sling), DirecTV lost 2 Million, not stable at all.
Both DIRECTV and DISH have hardware that's been the same for 5 years or more. The software has been evolving for 20 years and honestly, it's pretty darn good. There's not the same need for peer support that there once was.
Concerning DirecTV Hardware, a lot of people on the forums complain it is extremely slow.
When will DirecTV release a new box for Satellite customers?
Here's the way I see it. Satellite TV is a great value. It gives you a ton of content with incredible reliability.
What value, a average price of $130 for less and less new content, a bunch of reruns you can get for free on Pluto TV and sports ( except Football) that get extremely low ratings.
I get the vast majority of new (and old) content from Pay Live TV, movies, streaming shows, live feeds of certain channels (CNN for example), HBO, Showtime, Apple TV+, Netflix, all but one in the highest tier (no commercials, 4K) for around $70.
It's something you're familiar with and something you know how to use.
Most can figure out how to stream.
You get local channels and there's always something to sit down and zone out to.
Same for streaming.
Streaming is great but the stress of finding something to watch can be its own problem.
I never have that issue, used to have it with Paid Live TV, because of the lack of new content.
Satellite TV is zen, and let's be honest we could all use some zen right now.
I find streaming is Zen, especially with the better video/sound quality.
For example, would you have watched Shogun on FX in 720P, or on Hulu/Disney+ in 4K/Dolby Vision/Atmos.