Years of speculation have finally come to fruition today, as the last two remaining satellite TV providers in the United States announced plans to merge in a deal worth nearly $10 billion. In an announcement from its owner AT&T, DirecTV agreed to acquire Dish parent company EchoStar that will result in creating the nation’s largest pay-TV service.

In a separate announcement, TPG, which AT&T has partnered with since 2021 to operate DirecTV’s satellite and streaming services as a joint venture, agreed to acquire the remaining 70% stake in DirecTV that it does not already own, for $7.6 billion. The deal is expected to be formalized by the end of 2025.

The agreement allows DirecTV to acquire EchoStar’s video business, which includes Dish TV and its Sling TV streaming service for $1 (not a typo) plus Dish’s net debt, valued at about $9.75 billion.

AT&T and TPG said their separate agreement will not be affected by the merger. Analysts expect the merger—which has been attempted in the past but resisted by regulators—will be quickly approved, given the decline in traditional pay-TV revenues that has coincided with the rise in cord cutting and streaming. U.S. pay-TV providers, including satellite TV services, lost 5.04 million subscribers in 2023, an increase from 4.6 million in 2022. This decline is part of a larger trend where pay-TV penetration dropped from 88% in 2010 to 64% in 2023, according to Evoca.

A combined DirecTV/Dish will have almost 20 million subscribers, making it the nation’s largest pay-TV service after Comcast, which has just over 13 million as of the end of June. DirecTV has about 11.3 million subscribers and Dish has approximately 8.07 million subscribers.

DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow and CFO Ray Carpenter are expected to stay on after the merger with the company’s HQ in El Segundo, Calif., current home to DirecTV.

Morrow said of the deal, “With greater scale, we expect a combined DirecTV and Dish will be better able to work with programmers to realize our vision for the future of TV, which is to aggregate, curate, and distribute content tailored to customers’ interests, and to be better positioned to realize operating efficiencies while creating value for customers through additional investment.”

Hamid Akhavan, President and Chief Executive Officer, EchoStar, called the deal “in the best interests of EchoStar’s customers, shareholders, bondholders, employees, and partners,” adding that “with an improved financial profile, we will be better positioned to continue enhancing and deploying our nationwide 5G Open RAN wireless network. This will provide U.S. wireless consumers with more choices and help to drive innovation at a faster pace. We expect Dish and EchoStar bondholders to benefit from two companies with stronger financial profiles and more sustainable capital structures.”

DirecTV launched 30 years ago in June 1994 and Dish debuted in 1996. After some consolidation in the late ‘90’s, the satellite TV market reached its peak during the first decade of the 21st century. However increased competition from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and Charter—which upped its broadband speeds, which, in turn helped birth the streaming phenomenon—took its toll on the industry by the 'teens.

Recent dust-ups, such as DIrecTV’s carriage dispute with Disney as well as the loss of exclusive NFL-wide coverage with its Sunday NFL Ticket package to YouTube TV two years ago, further illustrated the industry’s decline in recent years.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—DirecTV has unveiled a substantial upgrade to its user experience for all DirecTV satellite customers who use a Genie or Gemini device. 

The update includes a redesigned menu at launch and an upgrade from the “Sports Central” that was introduced in 2023 for satellite customers.

The menu revamp is the first for eligible DirecTV satellite customers in more than five years and will offer a user interface more closely aligned to the experience rolled out earlier this year to users who stream DirecTV with a DirecTV device, the pay TV operator said. 

Included in the new menu are the following prominent content carousels: Live TV, Continue Watching, Discover, and Live Sports, which provides users a seasonal sports carousel, including football, baseball, basketball, soccer, and more.

The upgraded interface will combine a user’s selected favorites with their most watched content to put their most relevant live programming front and center on the menu. Further elevating DirecTV’s super aggregation capabilities, later this year the user interface will include personalized content curated to users’ preferred programming, DirecTV reported.  

As part of the upgrade, “Sports Central” will provide fans easy on-screen access to their favorite games, stats, and scores, including easily finding and accessing content only available on select third-party apps. 

The phased rollout will begin today, starting with on-screen notifications with a small group of customers in Denver, Colorado. The upgrades will be available to all eligible customers in the Denver market and will expand nationwide later this year.

To learn more about DirecTV and additional updates, visit www.directv.com. 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—SES has announced that the ASTRA 1P satellite was successfully launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:35 p.m. local time on June 20. 

The ASTRA IP satellite is the most powerful satellite to operate at 19.2 degrees East. It seamlessly replaces the current four satellites at the orbital location and continues their mission of serving 119 million TV households in Europe, SES reported. 

The Ku-band satellite will augment and strengthen SES's prime TV neighborhood at 19.2 degrees East while delivering content for public and private broadcasters, sports organizations and content owners to audiences across largest European TV markets. ASTRA 1P will also ensure the delivery of premium HD content directly to subscribers of HD+, SES’s high- definition satellite TV platform in Germany.

Built by Thales Alenia Space, ASTRA 1P is based on the 100% electric Spacebus NEO platform and features 80 transponders capable of delivering 500 HD TV channels. 

“We are excited that ASTRA 1P will be joining our fleet of geostationary satellites, marking the next generation of satellites to operate at one of our most important orbital positions responsible for delivering content to hundreds of millions of viewers in Europe,” said Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES. “Ever since the launch of ASTRA 1A in 1988, our satellites have played a pivotal role in reliably delivering high-quality content to viewers. We are well-positioned to continue supporting our broadcast customers for many years to come with ASTRA 1P.”

ENGELWOOD, Colo.—Echostar’s Dish Network and Hughes Network Systems have announced a new bundled service offering that is designed to improve the connectivity and entertainment options in rural America with programming from Dish combined with the Hughesnet satellite internet service. 

Given the limited connectivity and programming options available in many rural areas, the two Echostar companies said that the bundle will provide often overlooked rural consumers who have limited options for connectivity with access to high speed internet services and entertainment. 

The bundle includes the Dish Hopper whole-home DVR entertainment system combined with Hughesnet internet connectivity.  The combined technologies provide better coverage and performance throughout the entire home.

"Our mission at Dish has always been to serve rural America and change the way the world communicates, and now that focus is supercharged," said Gary Schanman, executive vice president and group president, Dish Video Services. We have more capabilities than ever before, more products, more services, and powerful brands that complement one another, providing our customers with more options no matter where they live."

The new Hughesnet service plans in the bundle are powered by JUPITER 3, the largest and most advanced commercial communications satellite with faster speeds of up to 100 Mbps, unlimited data and powerful Wi-Fi, allowing customers to now enjoy video streaming, music downloads, video conferencing, gaming, and more, the companies reported. 

"With the combination of Hughes and Dish technologies, innovation, and leadership focused on rural American homes, we are more strategically aligned, and the customer remains at the center of what we do," said Paul Gaske, chief operating officer, Hughes. "Rural customers have traditionally had limited options for TV and internet in rural America. Dish and Hughes are solving those hurdles by further advancing connectivity in rural communities to provide the best value in TV and Internet."

New customers who take advantage of the bundle by adding and maintaining both Dish TV and Hughesnet internet services, will receive a $5 monthly savings off each service.

DirecTV announced a “new feature” over the weekend that will  allow its subscribers to opt out of their local stations in return for a discount. Customers who choose the “No Locals” option will get $12 lopped off of their monthly plans. 

DirecTV, which, like most pay-TV providers has a long history of retrans battles with station groups, has hinted at offering this option for awhile, saying last November that “creating a Pay TV a la carte model for local broadcast stations would return choice, control and value to consumers with broadcasters came out swinging against local TV stations in their announcement.”

“Consumers have been voting with their wallets for years that pay TV—as currently constructed—is too expensive and restricts their choices,” said Rob Thun, DirecTV chief content officer said in its announcement. “Our new ‘No Locals’ package enables customers to take an important step forward in culling out certain types of content they may no longer care to watch and better balance the price they are willing to pay.”

DirecTV said that “customers who want to access the programs that make up their local station lineups typically have several options available to them today, including national network and local station websites, subscription streaming services that are often cheaper than local station fees, and more powerful over-the-air digital broadcast antennas.”

“Interested customers can take this new feature for a test drive starting today and use it to opt out of their usual local station access during non-peak programming months – like the summer – and then resume in the fall or whenever they choose,” the company added. 

DirecTV also took potshots at the quality of networking programming as well. 

“National broadcast network content has suffered a more than 40% decline in viewership since 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research,’ the company said. “The major studios that own the national broadcast networks keep shifting top series producers and most buzzed about scripted shows that had bolstered local stations’ primetime lineups over to their streaming services instead. 

“That trend continues to diminish the quantity and quality of scripted entertainment on these same local stations, as the major broadcast networks’ collective share of Emmy nominations has plummeted 55% since 2014,” DirecTV added. “In the most recent 75th Emmy Awards, for instance, the only broadcast network representation in any key series or acting categories was ABC’s Abbott Elementary, while ABC sibling FX on Hulu’s The Bear swept the top awards against an Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video,  Max, and Netflix-heavy field.”

A new survey from cordcutting.com concludes that the majority of cable and satellite TV customers think they’re wasting their money on their subscriptions, based on the paltry number of channels they view. 

The survey, the website’s first since 2019, showed that these pay-TV subscribers have access to 190 channels but regularly only watch 15 of them. As expected broadcast networks and ESPN came out on top of the popularity poll. It also showed that the average cable TV monthly bill is grown from $96 to $147 since 2019, an increase of 52%. 

That rise has likely been driven by the continued increase in cordcutting, prompting pay-TV operators to increase prices in response; as well as increases in broadcast and sports rights costs. 

The survey also showed that the share of Americans watching cable or satellite TV has plunged by more than 20 percentage points from 2015 to 2021, with another 4.7 million households cutting the cord in 2021 alone. Meanwhile, streaming has become more popular—despite Netflix’s recent woes, the industry is up as a whole with spending on streaming growing 20 percent in 2021.

But when it comes to pay-TV subscriptions, the survey showed that nearly two out of every three subscribers think they’re not getting a good deal and 45% of cable TV subscribers saying that they would cancel their television packages if they weren't tied to their internet service provider.

In terms of the number of channels watched, the survey showed that out of the average lineup of 190 channels overall, subscribers watch only 15. By paying $147 per month to watch only 15 channels, the survey concluded that that averages out to $9.57 per channel watched, which rivals the average fee for an OTT streaming service. This results in an annual average of  more than $1,600 “wasted” on subscription fees, up from $1,088 in 2019 according to cordcutting.com.

The cost is even higher for the many viewers who watch fewer stations—less than 50%percent of pay-TV subscribers regularly watch more than 10 channels, and less than a quarter regularly watched 20 or more channels in their subscription.

Cordcutting.com said that many pay-TV subscribers continue their subscriptions out of habit and the lack of knowledge over their viewing options. 

“For less than half of the price of the average cable or satellite subscription, customers could obtain basic subscriptions to most major streaming services (and for a few dollars more, they can access ad-free versions),” said Stephen Lovely, cordcutting.com managing editor in a blog post. “Some viewers resist completely cutting the cord out of unfounded fear that they'll lose live television access. In reality, the major broadcast channels are free with a digital antenna, Paramount+ (CBS) and Peacock (NBC) carry live network streams, and other platforms (Apple TV+, Prime Video) are already adding live sports to compete with ESPN.

"With streaming options providing nearly all the services as cable TV at more affordable prices, it’s hard to understand why anyone stays with cable or satellite packages," Lovely added. "Perhaps that’s why industry experts expect the number of cable TV subscribers to soon drop to 50 million unless rising streaming prices drive a resurgence.

LOS ANGELES—Ken Kelly, a Black electronics engineer who was a key contributor in developing antennas for satellite TV and radio, has passed away at the age of 92, the Associated Press has reported. He had Parkinson’s disease and officially died on Feb. 27, according to his family.

Throughout his career, Kelly received more than a dozen patents for his work in radar and antenna technology. This included two-way antenna designs that enabled customers to have DirecTV and Sirius XM connections. This technology is also used in the Mojave Desert radiotelescopes that are searching for signs of life in space.

Kelly’s career also included working with NASA on deep space missions and JPL.

In addition to his professional career, Kelly was an advocate for Civil Rights. In 1962, he and his family were the first Black family to move into the suburb of Gardena, Calif., which had excluded Black people. He also, as letters show, helped convince Charles Schulz to include the character of Franklin in his “Peanuts” comic strips as a “supernumerary” and just another member of his cast of characters.

Read the full Associated Press story on KTLA’s website. 

WASHINGTON--The FCC has announced deadlines for the NPRM it issued last month that changes the method for cable and satellite TV providers to notify broadcast television stations from paper to electronic delivery.

Deadline for comments is Sept. 4, 2019 and reply comments, Sept. 19.

On July 10, the commission approved an NPRM that would allow cable and satellite TV providers to notify broadcast TV stations about must-carry or retransmission consent issues by email rather than traditional certified mail. The move was supported by most TV lobbyists, including the NAB, APTS and NCTA-The Internet and Television Association.

The NPRM also seeks comments on whether electronic notification should also be extended to LPTV without Class A status and certain noncommercial translator stations that don’t have FCC public record requirements. 

ENGLEWOOD, CO--DISH has announced that AT&T has pulled HBO and Cinemax from its satellite pay TV and Sling TV services due to what DISH calls “untenable demands designed specifically to harm customers, particularly those in rural areas, as well as damage competing pay-tv providers.”

DISH is using the dispute to further its claims that when AT&T acquired HBO/Cinemax parent company Time Warner earlier this year after winning an antitrust suit filed by the DOJ, there were no guidelines set in place to ensure that AT&T would treat subscribers to its channels fairly.

"Plain and simple, the merger created for AT&T immense power over consumers," said Andy LeCuyer, DISH senior vice president of Programming. "It seems AT&T is implementing a new strategy to shut off its recently acquired content from other distributors. This may be the first of many HBO blackouts for consumers across the country. AT&T no longer has incentive to come to an agreement on behalf of consumer choice; instead, it's been given the power to grab more money or steal away customers.

The move constitutes the first time in its 40+ year history that HBO is going black on a major pay-TV provider. For its part, AT&T defended itself, decrying DISH’s past negotiation tactics.

“During our 40 plus years of operation, HBO has always been able to reach agreement with our valued distributors and our services have never been taken down or made unavailable to subscribers due to an inability to conclude a deal,” HBO said in a statement. “Unfortunately, DISH is making it extremely difficult, responding to our good faith attempts with unreasonable terms. Past behavior shows that removing services from their customers is becoming all too common a negotiating tactic for them. We hope the situation with DISH changes soon but, in the meantime, our valued customers should take advantage of the other ways to access an HBO subscription so they can continue to enjoy our acclaimed programming.

DISH says the majority of its HBO subscribers are based in rural areas where they are less likely to have access to high speed broadband, which would allow them to substitute AT&T’s “HBO Now” streaming service.

"AT&T's actions are a deliberate slap in the face to rural Americans," said LeCuyer. "And furthermore, they are anticompetitive. AT&T, a company worth more than $200 billion, is intentionally punishing those who don't have big-city broadband access, in an attempt to push customers to the only other satellite provider, its own DirecTV."

DISH says the market for HBO has changed since DISH last signed a carriage deal in 2015: HBO set the market price at $15 per month with its launch of the direct-to-consumer HBO Now service; and AT&T has announced plans to launch a new direct-to-consumer HBO service next year.

"Usually when there is a programming dispute, we don't see eye to eye on rates; but HBO has already set the going rate, so now they're seeking to extract money a different way," said LeCuyer.

DISH says AT&T is demanding it pay for a guaranteed number of subscribers, regardless of how many consumers actually want to subscribe to HBO.

"AT&T is stacking the deck with free-for-life offerings to wireless customers and slashed prices on streaming services, effectively trying to force DISH to subsidize HBO on AT&T's platforms," said LeCuyer. "This is the exact anticompetitive behavior that critics of the AT&T-Time Warner merger warned us about. Every pay-TV company should be concerned."

DISH said it would welcome “binding, baseball-style arbitration” to determine the fair market value of HBO and Cinemax but that during the arbitration process, AT&T would be required to restore its channels to DISH customers.

"Rather than trying to force consumers onto their platforms, we suggest that AT&T try to achieve its financial goals through simple economics: if consumers want your product, they'll pay for it. We hope AT&T will reconsider its demands and help us reach a swift, fair resolution," added LeCuyer.

DISH said it would credit eligible Sling TV customers for time they do not receive HBO or Cinemax.

The top U.S. pay TV providers turned in an improved Q1 2018, but the results weren’t good enough to avoid a net subscriber loss, according to a new analysis from Leichtman Research Group.  

The largest MVPDs, representing about 95 percent of the market, shed about 305,000 net video subs in Q1 2018, compared to a pro forma loss of about 515,000 subs in the year-ago period, LRG said.

“Traditional” pay TV services, excluding internet-delivered services, lost 710,000 subs in Q1, improved from a year-ago loss of 780,000. Among individual market segments, the top six U.S. cable operators lost about 285,000 video subs in Q1, widened from a loss of 115,000 a year earlier.

Dish Network and DirecTV lost 375,000 satellite TV subs in Q1, versus a year-ago loss of 340,000. The top telco TV providers lost just 50,000 video subs in the period, improving greatly from losses of 325,000 subs in Q1 2017. LRG said Q1 marked the fewest sub losses in that segment in any quarter since Q3 2015.

Read: Millions Flee Pay-TV; Revenues Slide, Say Researchers]

Dish’s Sling TV and AT&T’s DirecTV Now, the top publicly reporting OTT TV service providers, combined to tack on 405,000 subs in Q1, up from 265,000 net adds in Q1 2017, LRG said.

With all segments factored in, the largest U.S. pay TV providers now account for 91.9 million subs – 47.8 million for the top cable MSOs, 31.1 million for satellite TV, 9.2 million, and 3.8 million for Sling TV and DirecTV Now.

Recent estimates that include subs for other OTT TV services such as YouTube TV, fuboTV, Hulu live TV, PlayStation Vue and Philo, put the virtual MVPD sub total at north of 5 million.

“The number of pay TV subscribers for the top providers peaked six years ago. Since 1Q 2012, top providers have lost about 3.4 million total pay-TV subscribers,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement. “Since the industry’s peak, traditional services have lost about 7.2 million subscribers, while the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered services gained about 3.8 million subscribers.”

NEW YORK—The average household is paying nearly double in subscription costs to pay TV since 2000, representing an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 74 percent, according to Kagan.

When figuring in 2017 inflation adjusted dollars, legacy pay TV homes in 2000 were spending an average of $698.30 per year for multichannel service over telco, cable and satellite; by 2017, this figure had risen to $1,211.58, representing 3.3 percent CAGR. The real U.S. average income, in comparison, advance at a 0.3 percent CAGR, growing just 4.7 percent over the 17 year period, Kagan said.

The increases have not come without service enhancements, however, including a larger number of networks, and advanced services such as VOD, DVR services and improved user interfaces and resolution.

Kagan noted that multichannel revenue per subscriber “varies widely across the income spectrum.” In areas where the mean income was below $49,999, the multichannel penetration rate was 71.2 percent compared to a national average of approximately 74 percent as of Q4 2017. In areas where the average household incomes were more than $200K, penetration stood at nearly 83 percent, and in areas where average household incomes were between $50K and $100K, (the majority of households, at 73.5 percent of the total) penetration came in at 72.5 percent.

To add perspective on the impact that rising Pay-TV subscription rates have on household incomes, Kagan calculated U.S. multichannel purchasing power based on 2017 inflation-adjusted annual multichannel average revenue per user (ARPU) and average income figures, using 2000 as the base year. Based on this, Kagan developed an "affordability index" that illustrates the sharp decline in affordability, starting at 10 in 2000 and declining from then on, but relatively flat since 2012. 

Kagan blamed “the eroding multichannel affordability” partly to the growing popularity of OTT services such as Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix, as well as the emergence of “skinny bundles” from DISH and ATT’s DirecTV. 

Comcast formally announced that it was making a cash offer for Sky plc that is higher than 21 Century Fox’s bid for the satellite company.

AT 12.50 British pounds per share, Comcast’s offer worth $31 billion, a 16% premium above Fox’s offer.

Fox’s current stake in Sky, plus the remainder of Sky, is Fox manages to acquire is, would be among the assets Fox has agreed to sell to The Walt Disney Co. Disney has also said it would be willing to buy Sky.

Comcast had also tried to acquire those assets from Fox and was willing to pay more than Disney has agreed to pay.

“We are delighted to be formalizing our offer for Sky today. We have long believed Sky is an outstanding company and a great fit with Comcast,” said Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast. “Sky has a strong business, excellent customer loyalty, and a valued brand. It is led by a terrific management team who we look forward to working with to build and grow this business.”

Roberts said Sky would be Comcast’s platform for growth across Europe.

“The combined customer base of approximately 52 million will allow us to invest more in original and acquired programming and more in innovation as we strive to deliver a truly differentiated customer experience. We look forward to receiving the necessary regulatory approvals,” he said.

As part of its bid, Comcast said It would:

• Maintain annual expenditure in Sky News for ten years, at a level not less than incurred in Sky’s 2017 financial year;

• Establish an editorial Sky News board with the responsibility to ensure the editorial independence of Sky News for ten years;

• Maintain Sky’s UK headquarters in Osterley for five years; and

• Not acquire any majority interest in UK newspapers for five years.

Earlier, Comcast said it would:

• Continue to support the creative industries in the UK and increase investment in UK film and TV production;

• Support innovation in the UK by continuing to support Sky’s technology hub in Leeds;

• Continue to support young people in the UK by maintaining Sky’s Software Engineering Academy scheme; and

• Continue to support Sky’s local community sports programs in the UK.

Over the top access revenue topped $11.9 billion in 2017, a 41 percent increase over the prior year and is expected to maintain that momentum for the foreseeable future, according to a Convergence Research Group study, The Battle for the American Couch Potato: OTT, TV, Online.

According to Convergence, OTT revenue (based on 55 providers, led by Netflix) is expected to reach $16.6 billion in 2018, a 40 percent gain over 2017, and $25.6 billion in 2020.

At the same time, U.S. cable, satellite and telco TV access revenue grew just 1 percent in 2017, to $107.6 billion, and should slip in the coming years. Convergence estimates that traditional pay TV revenue should dip to $107.4 billion in 2018 and $106.9 billion by 2020.

Pay TV lost an estimated 3.66 million subscribers in 2017, up from 2.2 million in 2016, and should lose another 3.72 million in 2018, according to Convergence. The growth in OTT services – Convergence gathered data from about 55 different over-the-top providers for the study – is again the culprit.

[Read: Younger Viewers Gravitating To OTT TV Services: Study]

Convergence estimates 32.13 million US households, or 26.1 percent of homes, did not have a traditional TV subscription at the end of 2017, up from 27.56 million (22.6% of homes) in 2016. The researcher forecasts 36.76 million (29.6 percent of homes) will not have a “The gloves are off,” Convergence said in its report, adding that the industry is being transformed by deep-pocketed tech players like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Netflix who appear to be willing to spend billions of dollars on original, licensed and sports content.

“We expect especially for the US market going forward fewer content deals between programmers and independent OTT providers: 2017 saw Disney choose not to renew with Netflix and embrace OTT, HBO not renew with Amazon in the US, Hulu (which is spending more on content on a per US subscriber basis than Amazon or Netflix) continue to bolster its offerings compete & more directly against TV access providers, and A+E, AMC, Discovery, Scripps, and Viacom back & supply Philo,” the report said.

Traditional pay TV providers have managed to keep revenue growing mainly through price increases, but that isn’t expected to last. Convergence estimates that TV access revenue will decline going forward. And programmers, who have relied on rising affiliate fees and advertising rates in the past are preparing for the new age of skinny bundles and lower monthly price points by going direct to consumer themselves.

“Programmers have read the writing on the wall and have already gone, or are in process of going direct to consumer, again at competitive price points,” according to the report.

At the same time, while cable continues to expert its dominance in the broadband arena, its growth is slowing too. Convergence estimates that about 2.33 million residential broadband subscribers were added in the U.S. in 2017 down from 2.66 million additions in 2016, while revenue rose 7 percent $56.8 million. Convergence estimates that broadband additions will grow slightly to 2.57 million in 2018, and revenue will rise 6 percent to $60.5 billion.

This article originally appeared in Broadcasting & Cable. 

LONDON--Fears among pay-TV providers about the growing trend of cord cutting are being offset by a new phenomenon in which viewers are adding OTT services on top of existing pay-TV subscriptions, even when they spend more overall.

Paywizard, a London-based subscription, billing and customer relationship management (CRM) specialist calls these subscribers, “pay-TV polygamists,” which it details in its report “Show the Love with Customer Experience.” The report adds that the cord-cutting trend can also be curtailed by providing better customer service.

The firm surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers nationwide and found that 21-percent of cord-cutter households now only subscribe to OTT services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu as their sole pay-TV package. But the research finds that twice as many—or 41-percent of households—are a growing force of “pay-TV polygamists” that subscribe to both traditional pay-TV and OTT services. And, 25 percent of those surveyed cancelled a pay-OTT service during the previous 12 months due to a poor customer experience.

[Read: Millions Flee Pay-TV; Revenues Slide, Say Researchers]

“The U.S. is the most advanced TV market in the world with high pay-TV adoption, and the research signals that there is a real opportunity for operators to prevent cord-cutting and win over new subscribers, as the figures also show consumers are willing to spend more overall on pay-TV if the customer relationships are managed effectively,” said Bhavesh Vaghela, Paywizard’s Chief Executive

The research concludes that failing to provide a consistently positive customer experience has real and serious ramifications. In fact, 30 percent of U.S. pay-TV households experienced a negative interaction or issue with at least one of their TV service providers over the previous 12 months, and 42 percent of those cancelled their service. While just 24 percent of U.S. survey respondents felt their issues were handled effectively, the remaining 76 percent felt the interaction damaged their view of the brand.

As the multisubscription customer base grows, “operators need to differentiate themselves to win and retain customers,” Vaghela said, “The key is improved interactions, guided by data-led insight at every stage of the customer journey, so that marketing is more precisely targeted, processes streamlined, recommendations better informed, and each engagement is more personalized.”

Paywizard will be at NAB Show 2018 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, booth SU10306CM.