When DIRECTV NOW hit the market it saw explosive growth with over 200,000 subscribers in just a few months. Now it seems that growth has severely slowed down.
According to a report from Bloomberg, DIRECTV NOW hit 328,000 subscribers by the end of January and topped out at around 400,000 according to Discovery’s CEO.
Now Bloomberg says DIRECTV NOW lost 3,000 subscribers after hitting its peak,, and growth in March was flat.
Growth of DIRECTV NOW was likely fueled by strong early promos offering free devices and discounts on its Go Big plan, which cut the price almost in half. Both of these popular offers have ended, and the free Fire TV Stick deal will end in June.
The end of these promotional offers combined with new competition from Hulu and YouTube TV seems to be affecting DIRECTV NOW. Even Sling TV and PlayStation Vue have fought back.
Sling TV has rolled out a DVR feature, something DIRECTV NOW still lacks. PlayStation Vue has added more locals including most CBS affiliates.
The slow growth may also have to do with the poor early performance of DIRECTV NOW at launch. Something that even AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson recently addressed. “It ramped up a lot faster than we ever thought it would, which is a great thing but also caught us a bit flat-footed on a couple things,” he said.
Now the question is what will happen next. Comcast and Verizon are both getting ready to launch live TV streaming services. How many live TV services can this market support? Which service will be the first to fall?
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