Analyst Sounds Warning On Death Of TV: 'Cord Cutting Used To Be An Urban Myth. It Isn't Any More.'

Moffett Research founder and analyst Craig Moffett said in a report on declining pay TV subscriptions that cord-cutters — consumers who don't want to subscribe to pay TV services because they can get all the programming they need on tablets and desktops — are doing "statistically significant" damage to the television industry:

"Cord cutting used to be an urban myth," Moffett said. "It isn’t anymore. No, the numbers aren’t huge, but they are statistically significant."

We asked One Touch Intelligence — which also examines cable industry trends — if their analysts were seeing the same thing. They are. (See the chart; click to enlarge.)

In Q2 2013, there was a net decline of 319,518 paid video cable and satellite subscriptions, according to One Touch. Q2 is always a lousy quarter for the TV business. Subscriptions tend to follow housing trends, and so the numbers have a seasonal cycle, and Q2 is always in the "down" part of the cycle.

But this Q2 was worse than the one before. All cable TV operators lost subscribers — including Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, and Time Warner. Only AT&T and Verizon gained users, adding 373,000 subs, the numbers show.

The chart shows that the lows of TV's subscriber losses are lower than the highs of its gains — the overall trend is down, in other words.

Note that AT&T and Verizon are primarily broadband internet suppliers, not TV companies.