The “cord cutting” trend in the cable television industry continued in the third quarter as cable service subscriptions dropped to a record 4.89 million, down 1.96 percent annually, statistics released this week by the National Communications Commission (NCC) showed.
The figure was the lowest recorded by the NCC since it started compiling cable industry statistics in about 2011, it said.
Subscribers to the nation’s five major cable operators — Kbro Co, China Network Systems Co (CNS), Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC), Taiwan Mobile Broadband and Taiwan Optical Platform Co — declined across the board from the second quarter, the data showed.
CNS lost more than other operators, with 6,831 subscriptions canceled from the second quarter, followed by TBC, which lost 4,465 subscribers.
In the third quarter last year, CNS, Kbro and TBC also saw the greatest decline in subscribers, with 26,700, 20,700 and 16,000 subscriptions canceled respectively.
Subscriber numbers have fluctuated over the past 10 years, NCC data showed.
Subscriptions gradually declined from 2011 (5.10 million) to the second quarter of 2013 (4.97 million), but rebounded from the third quarter of that year until peaking in the second quarter of 2017 (5.26 million).
Subscriber numbers have been falling since the third quarter of 2017 — mainly attributed to a rise in over-the-top TV operators.
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