Late last year news came out predicting that DIRECTV NOW would top Sling TV and become the largest live TV streaming service. Instead, DIRECTV NOW lost over 250,000 subscribers and is now, according to TDG Research, the third-largest live TV streaming service behind Hulu’s live TV streaming service.
According to TDG Research, Hulu ended 2018 with 1.59 million live TV subscribers. This puts them just ahead of DIRECTV NOW according to internal TDG Research since Hulu has not supplied official numbers.
Two other wild cards are out there: PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV. Both have not announced their official subscriber numbers, and reports put them at around 500,000 subscribers for PlayStation Vue and 800,000 subscribers for YouTube TV.
Recently after many started to wonder how serious Sony was about PlayStation Vue, we have finally seen some new movement from the live TV streaming service. Sony struck new partnerships with both Amazon and Apple. PlayStation Vue added new locals and updated their Roku Channel with new features.
Will Sony’s moves help PlayStation Vue acquire new subscribers after reportedly being stuck in the 400,000 to 500,000 subscriber number range for over a year?
YouTube TV has been very aggressive adding new markets and more locals, and some have placed YouTube TV’s numbers as high as 1 million subscribers. However, others put them as low as 600,000 subscribers. Again, it is just a best guess, but looking at the trend of all the studies point to steady YouTube TV subscriber growth.
What will happen next? Will DIRECTV NOW keep losing subscribers? AT&T has warned that it may happen. Will Hulu keep growing and overtake Sling TV or will some other service overtake all of them? We will have to wait and see.
What live TV streaming service do you think will come out on top in the long run? Sling TV? Hulu? PlayStation Vue? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
Source: FierceVideo
Did you know we have a YouTube Channel? Every week we have a live Cord Cutting Q&A, and weekly Cord Cutting recap shows exclusively on our YouTube Channel!
Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news, tips, and reviews. Need cord cutting tech support? Join our Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.