Pay-TV ‘Cord Cutting’ Accelerates

The pay-TV industry contracted in the third quarter at a faster pace than a year earlier, signaling that “cord cutting” is accelerating as more consumers drop cable and satellite-TV connections.

Overall, the pay-TV industry lost about 179,000 TV customers, a steeper loss from the decline of 83,000 in the year-earlier quarter, according to public company reports and estimates from Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson LLC. Already, more homes and businesses have dropped pay-TV service in the first three quarters of 2014 than in the whole of 2013, MoffettNathanson estimates. Subscriber defections came at all the major cable and satellite-TV providers.