More households nationwide have cut the cord in the past six months as the number of cable TV subscribers in the second quarter dropped 2.55 percent to about 4.91 million, National Communications Commission (NCC) data showed yesterday.
Cable TV operators must regularly report how many subscribers they have to the NCC, as required in Article No. 24 of the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法), the commission said, adding that it would compile the quarterly reports and post them on its Web site.
Subscribers have fallen from more than 4.93 million in the first quarter to about 4.91 million in the second quarter, NCC data showed.
The trend was more pronounced when compared with the second quarter of last year, when there were more than 5.04 million cable TV service subscribers.
All five large multiple system operators have lost subscribers since last quarter and last year, the data showed.
Kbro Co, the nation’s biggest cable television system operator, reported a year-on-year loss of 42,698 subscribers, followed by China Network Systems and Taiwan Broadband Communications, losing 28,124 and 17,145 subscribers respectively, the commission said.
The commission said that there were more than 5 million subscribers in 2014 due to the enhanced content broadcast quality made possible through the digitization of cable TV service.
However, cable TV subscribers have fallen below 5 million since the third quarter of last year due to competitions from over-the-top (OTT) TV operators, it said.
A survey conducted by the NCC last year asked subscribers if they were likely to cancel their subscriptions in the next 12 months, with about 8 percent of the respondents saying that they would consider it, the commission said.
When asked about their reasons for canceling their cable TV services, the two most common responses were the convenience of Internet (36.7 percent) and the lack of interesting programs on cable (26.7 percent).
To counter the downward trend, cable service operators have begun to explore different business models, such as introducing smart set-top boxes or forming strategic partnerships with telecoms or OTT operators, the commission said.
Whether these measures would effectively slow the loss of cable TV subscribers remains to be seen, it added.
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