Leading US pay-TV firms maintain grip DetailsJoseph O'Halloran | 02 May 2016 The leading six pay-TV services in the US maintained their overall subscriber numbers, with a net quarterly gain of 33,000 in the first quarter of 2016, says the latest informitv Multiscreen Index.comcast streamingThe report shows that four of the six services reported total gains of 438,000 for a grand total of 78.31 million video subscribers. Moreover, these six operators are still reporting more television customers in total than four years ago, said informitv, somewhat contradicting the conventional narrative that Americans are abandoning pay television.AT&T U-verse reported the largest loss (382,000) of video subscribers, but this was largely offset by gains for DIRECTV, which AT&T has been promoting since it acquired the company last year. That, said DIRECTV, fell short of making up the difference by 54,000. Between the two services, AT&T still has 25.34 million video customers, making it the market leader in the United States with DIRECTV contributing 20.11 million.Comcast added 53,000 video subscribers, its best first quarter result in nine years, taking its total to 22.40 million, while DISH Network lost 23,000 subscribers, ending the quarter with 13.87 million, down by 139,000 year-on-year.Time Warner Cable added 21,000 residential video customers, with a total of 10.84 million. Charter Communications, which is planning to acquire the company, gained 10,000, for a total of 4.33 million. In the IPTV sector, Verizon Fios gained 36,000, compared to 90,000 in the same quarter a year previously, taking its total to 5.86 million and AT&T U-verse dropped down to 5.23 million. The service has lost 737,000 subscribers in 12 months as AT&T concentrates on DIRECTV.