Evidence Grows on TV Cord-Cutting

The most intense debate in television today -- whether the lure of Netflix and YouTube is causing viewers to disconnect their cable-TV service -- is likely to intensify after new figures showed a slight decline in overall pay-TV subscribers in the second quarter.

Publicly traded cable, satellite and phone companies had a combined net loss of about 200,000 subscribers in the quarter, earnings reports showed, about 0.2% of the roughly 100 million pay-TV subscribers. Sanford C. Bernstein estimates the overall industry shed more than 400,000 subscribers during the period when results for closely held operators are included. A sustained decline in the number of people subscribing to pay TV has ramifications for pay-TV operators and for TV channels, most of which share in the fees paid by subscribers. Big entertainment companies generate much of their profits from subscription fees paid to TV channels. TV executives so far are divided on cord-cutting. The second-quarter numbers won't conclusively settle the argument.