The OTT race

Sling remains the largest player in the total OTT pay-TV landscape with over 2.34 million subscribers. DirecTV Now T had hit 1.8 million subscribers by the end of June, which means the two largest players now control over two thirds of the more than 6 million total OTT pay-TV subscribers, according to Digiday.

While Sling leads the pack, the gap with DirecTV Now is shrinking, with only 535,000 separating the two providers, down from 836,000 at the end of the first quarter. While Sling had 41,000 net adds in the second quarter, the pace of expansion is slowing, as the service added 120,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2017 and 91,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2018. In contrast, DirecTV Now added 342,000 subscribers in the second quarter versus 152,000 in same period in 2017 and 312,000 in the first quarter of 2018. We expect that DirecTV Now will overtake Sling within the next year, but that YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV will expand faster than their slightly older peers.