Cable TV remains a large but changing U.S. video business. The statistics below distinguish national market estimates, FCC survey prices, and company-specific customers, service units, revenue and costs measured in different periods.
Key Cable TV Statistics
These figures summarize the most useful cable TV measurements across the United States and named operator footprints:
- In 2023, 54.1 million traditional MVPD subscribers remained in the United States.
- Between 2022 and 2023, cable MVPDs lost 4.0 million subscribers in the United States.
- In 2023, cable MVPDs represented an estimated 65.3% of traditional MVPD subscribers in the United States.
- Traditional MVPD household subscription fell from an estimated approximately 88% in 2009 to approximately 41% in December 2023 in the United States.
- The FCC sample found $47.06 was the average monthly basic cable-service price on January 1, 2024.
- The FCC sample found $108.41 was the average monthly expanded-basic price on January 1, 2024.
- The FCC sample found $124.54 was the average monthly price for the next most popular service on January 1, 2024.
- Comcast ended 2024 with 12.523 million domestic video customers in the United States.
- Comcast reported 63.692 million U.S. homes and businesses passed on December 31, 2024.
- Charter reported 123,000 video-customer losses in Q4 2024 across its service footprint.
- Cable One served approximately 1.1 million residential and business customers across 24 U.S. states on December 31, 2024.
- WideOpenWest had 60,600 video revenue-generating units in its footprint on December 31, 2024.
- Comcast reported $26.872 billion in video revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024.
- Charter reported $3.6 billion in video revenue in Q4 2024 across its service footprint.
- Charter programming costs decreased $229 million, or 9.1%, year over year in Q4 2024.
- Cable One reported $222.036 million in residential video revenue for 2024.
- Cable One’s 2023 residential video primary service units fell 21.6% year over year across its U.S. footprint.
Contents
- Key Cable TV Statistics
- U.S. Cable TV Subscriber Scale and Market Share
- Cable TV Subscriber Losses and Cord-Cutting Trends
- Cable TV Prices and Household Affordability Measures
- Cable Operator Customers, Network Reach and Service Mix
- Cable TV Revenue, Programming Costs and Financial Trends
- Major Operators and Smaller Cable Systems
U.S. Cable TV Subscriber Scale and Market Share
The FCC’s national figures use “traditional MVPD” for cable, direct-broadcast satellite and telephone-company multichannel video providers. That definition is broader than cable TV alone, so the measures below should not be treated as a single cable-only subscriber series.
| Measure | Period | United States result |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional MVPD subscribers | End of 2023 | 54.1 million |
| Cable MVPD share of traditional MVPDs | 2023 estimate | 65.3% |
| Cable MVPD share of traditional MVPDs | 2022 estimate | 63.5% |
| Traditional MVPD household subscription | 2009 estimate | Approximately 88% |
| Traditional MVPD household subscription | December 2023 estimate | Approximately 41% |
Source: Promoting Innovation and Competition in the Provision of Multichannel Video Programming Distribution Services (FCC 24-136). The FCC attributes the household estimate to NCTA, and the market-share figures are based on S&P Global data cited by the FCC.
The FCC reported that traditional MVPD subscribers fell from 61.9 million in 2022 to 54.1 million in 2023, a loss of 7.8 million. Within that broader comparison, cable MVPDs lost 4.0 million subscribers, compared with 3.0 million for DBS MVPDs and 0.8 million for telephone-company MVPDs between 2022 and 2023.
The FCC report also described an estimated loss of about 17.3 million cable MVPD subscribers over approximately 2013–2023. Its 2023 Q3 sample allocated national cable subscribers across system sizes as follows:
- Large cable systems serving more than 75,000 subscribers accounted for 61.29% of national subscribers in the FCC sample.
- Midsize systems serving 10,001–75,000 subscribers accounted for 29.79% of national subscribers in the FCC sample.
- Small systems serving 10,000 or fewer subscribers accounted for 8.89% of national subscribers in the FCC sample.
These system-size percentages are sampling-frame estimates, not a direct count of every national subscriber.
Cable TV Subscriber Losses and Cord-Cutting Trends
Company filings show how video declines appear inside individual cable footprints, while also showing that network reach and broadband measures are different from paying TV customers.
| Operator measure | Period | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Comcast domestic video customers | December 31, 2024 | 12.523 million |
| Comcast domestic video net loss | 2024 | 1.583 million |
| Comcast domestic video net loss | 2023 | 2.037 million |
| Charter video-customer loss | Q4 2024 | 123,000 |
| Charter video-customer loss | Q4 2023 | 257,000 |
Sources: Comcast 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K and Charter Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results. Comcast’s domestic video metric and Charter’s quarterly video metric are company-specific series.
Comcast reported 63.692 million domestic homes and businesses passed at the end of 2024, an increase of 1.235 million locations during the year. Those passed locations are serviceable places rather than video subscribers; Comcast’s domestic broadband penetration was 49.8% at the end of 2024, compared with 51.5% at the end of 2023, and this is a broadband measure rather than cable-TV penetration.
Charter’s residential non-video customer relationship share was 57.9% in Q4 2024, up from 54.8% in Q4 2023. It is a Charter service-footprint metric, not a national household estimate, but it illustrates the shift toward relationships without video service.
Cable TV Prices and Household Affordability Measures
The FCC’s January 1, 2024 survey provides service-tier price averages across surveyed cable systems. These are sample averages, not a universal household bill, and the “next most popular” tier can differ from one system to another.
| FCC cable-system sample measure | January 1, 2024 average | Change from January 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Basic cable service | $47.06 per month | 7.7%, or $3.29 |
| Expanded-basic service | $108.41 per month | 5.9%, or $6.04 |
| Next most popular service | $124.54 per month | 5.1%, or $6.08 |
Source: Promoting Innovation and Competition in the Provision of Multichannel Video Programming Distribution Services (FCC 24-136). The FCC reported each listed year-over-year change as statistically significant in its analysis.
The basic-service average was $47.06 per month on January 1, 2024, after rising 7.7% from January 2023, or $3.29 per month. Expanded-basic service averaged $108.41 and rose 5.9%, or $6.04, while the next most popular service averaged $124.54 and rose 5.1%, or $6.08.
Operator revenue-per-customer figures are not household TV prices. Charter’s Q4 2024 residential revenue per residential customer was $121.40, up 1.7% year over year, while Altice USA’s FY 2024 residential revenue per user was $135.44, down 1.0% year over year; both measures include broader residential product mixes.
Cable Operator Customers, Network Reach and Service Mix
Cable operators report several different units. “Homes passed” and “passings” describe serviceable locations, while customers, subscribers, RGUs and PSUs describe customers or individual services under each company’s definition.
| Operator and footprint | Reach or customer measure | End-of-2024 result |
|---|---|---|
| Cable One, 24 U.S. states | Passings | Approximately 2.8 million |
| Cable One, 24 U.S. states | Residential and business customers | Approximately 1.1 million |
| Cable One, 24 U.S. states | Data subscribers | Approximately 1.055 million |
| Cable One, 24 U.S. states | Video subscribers | Approximately 114,000 |
| Cable One, 24 U.S. states | Voice subscribers | Approximately 106,000 |
| WideOpenWest footprint | Homes passed | 1.9621 million |
| WideOpenWest footprint | Total subscribers | 478,700 |
| WideOpenWest footprint | Video RGUs | 60,600 |
Sources: Cable One, Inc. 2024 Form 10-K and WideOpenWest, Inc. 2024 Form 10-K. Cable One’s service counts include business and residential categories as stated; an RGU can differ from a unique household.
WideOpenWest’s total RGUs were 602,600 at the end of 2024, including 470,400 high-speed-data RGUs. Its 1.9621 million homes passed included homes, apartments, condominium units and businesses, so these figures describe footprint and service mix rather than a national cable-TV adoption rate.
Cable TV Revenue, Programming Costs and Financial Trends
Company financial measures show the scale of selected cable-media businesses, but they are not interchangeable with national industry totals or household bills.
| Company measure | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 or Q4 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comcast video revenue | $30.496 billion | $28.797 billion | $26.872 billion |
| Comcast domestic advertising revenue | — | — | $10.008 billion |
| Comcast domestic distribution revenue | — | — | $11.826 billion |
| Charter video revenue | — | — | $3.6 billion in Q4 |
| Cable One residential video revenue | — | $257.966 million | $222.036 million |
Sources: Comcast 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Charter Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results and Cable One, Inc. 2024 Form 10-K. The Comcast advertising and distribution measures are related media-segment revenue, not video subscriber-bill revenue.
Comcast video revenue was $26.872 billion in 2024, compared with $28.797 billion in 2023 and $30.496 billion in 2022. Charter’s Q4 2024 video revenue was $3.6 billion, down 7.4% year over year, while its programming costs decreased $229 million, or 9.1%, over the same comparison.
Cable One’s residential video revenue was $222.036 million in 2024, down $35.930 million, or 13.9%, from $257.966 million in 2023. Residential video represented 15.4% of Cable One’s total revenue in 2023, a company revenue mix rather than an industry-wide share.
Cable TV Statistics from Major Operators and Smaller Systems
Smaller and mid-sized operators provide a useful counterpoint to national aggregates because their footprints, definitions and product mixes vary. Cable One’s 2023 residential video PSUs were 134,200, down from 171,200 in 2022, a 21.6% year-over-year decline; its business video PSUs were 8,100 in 2023, down from 10,300 in 2022.
WideOpenWest’s homes passed increased from 1.9322 million at the end of 2023 to 1.9621 million at the end of 2024, while total subscribers declined from 504,100 to 478,700. Its monthly HSD, video and telephony subscription fees represented 92% of total revenue in 2024, compared with 93% in 2023; the combined measure is not video-only revenue.
Altice USA reported $9.0 billion in total revenue for FY 2024, down 3.1% year over year, and $6.9 billion in residential revenue, down 4.6%. Its FY 2024 residential ARPU was $135.44, down 1.0% year over year, and covers residential services rather than TV alone.
Across these operators, the definitions matter: homes passed are locations, PSUs and RGUs are service units, ARPU is a company financial measure, and video revenue can cover different reported businesses. The FCC’s national estimates and survey averages therefore provide market context, while individual filings show how cord-cutting, pricing and service-mix changes appear within particular footprints.