Netflix Subs Outnumber All Top Cable TV Companies, Combined

The Leichtman Research Group (LRG) recently released its latest estimates of pay-TV subscriber trends, this time covering end-of-year figures for 2016. Armed with this data – and Marketing Charts' ongoing analysis of Netflix paying subscribers – we decided to take a look at how Netflix’s audience size measures up to the top pay-TV providers.

Here’s what the the folks at Marketing Charts found (all data as of end of 2016):

• Netflix now has 47.9 million paying subscribers in the US;
• Netflix’s US paying subscriber count has almost doubled in the past 4 years;
• The 47.9 million paying subscribers for Netflix rivals the estimated 48.65 million for all of the top cable companies, combined;
• The number of cable company subscribers has fallen from 51.3 million 4 years ago; and
• Netflix has twice as many paying subscribers in the US than any single pay-TV provider, with Comcast (22.5 million), a cable company, and DIRECTV (21 million), a satellite company, leading among pay-TV providers; and
• Netflix has close to half as many paying subscribers as the entire pay-TV provider market.