More than a year after HBO kicked off a race among big media companies to go direct to consumers online, many of the new services are hovering around the million-subscriber mark. That suggests these services are far from a solution for media companies grappling with cord-cutting.
At the high end, wrestling service WWE had 1.5 million subscribers at June 30, while HBO Now had 800,000 at the end of December, the last date for which HBO disclosed figures. Showtime and CBS All Access each had around one million subscribers as of June 30, CBS has said. At the lower end, Acorn TV had 280,000 at the end of April, while latest figures from RoosterTeeth put it at 135,000.