A recent post at The Hollywood Reporter asserts that “most cord cutters and cord nevers are flocking” to YouTube TV, which isn’t accurate and overlooks the actual numbers, as detailed below. I often see this notion in the media that YouTube TV is picking up more cord-cutters than it actually is. The author also states that “Alphabet barely cares about YouTube TV’s financial performance,” which couldn’t be further from the truth, and every employee in the YouTube TV division I talk to would attest to the contrary.

Alphabet views the P&L of its YouTube TV business as one that needs to become profitable, and the author’s notion that Alphabet doesn’t care about YouTube’s financial performance is inaccurate. In January, YouTube raised the price of YouTube TV by $10 to $82.99 per month, due to rising content costs. In conversations I’ve had with executives at Alphabet, they have indicated that the YouTube TV service is not being used as a loss leader. If the company didn’t care about the financials as the author suggests, YouTube TV would not have dropped channels that they say cost too much to license. In addition, the pricing for the service has increased from $65 in 2020 to $83 in 2025, with the cost of the service more than doubling since its launch.

In February 2024, YouTube reported that it had “more than 8 million subscribers.” They have not given out a number since then, but many are reporting via third-party sources that YouTube TV has “about” or “close to” 10 million subscribers today. If the reported 10 million number is accurate, YouTube TV gained 2 million or fewer subscribers in 1.9 years. Over the same 1.9 years, more than 8 million cord-cutters have been reported in public earnings from Comcast, Altice, Charter, Verizon, Breezeline, DISH, and WideOpenWest, with an unknown number from DIRECTV, which no longer reports subscriber numbers. Adding in the not-yet-reported cord-cutting numbers from Q3 of this year, and the number of cord-cutting households in the past 1.9 years will be approximately 9 million.

An aspect that many may not be aware of, which is factored into YouTube TV subscriber numbers, is that YouTube counts consumers on trial plans who have not converted to paying members as subscribers. That’s why they never use the language of “paying members” but rather subscribers. Adding up the math, and assuming the 10 million YouTube TV members are accurate, this means that only 22% of cord-cutters have signed up for YouTube TV in the past 1.9 years, with that number dropping to under 20% if you add in those trialing YouTube TV for free. That would not be, as the author suggests, “most cord cutters,” but instead only one out of five cord cutters, or possibly even less, depending on how many trial subscribers YouTube TV has.

These numbers make sense, given that the cost of VMPD services has increased significantly over the past five years. For many, YouTube TV ($82.99 per month), Hulu+ Live TV ($88.99 per month), Fubo ($84.99 per month) and DIRECTV Stream ($84.99 per month) are no longer a simple replacement for cable TV, as they were when the services first entered the market. Over the past five years, more than 20 million households have cut the cord, with less than half opting for vMVPD services, according to public data provided by Disney, Fubo, DISH, and YouTube. That doesn’t take into account how many might have returned to cable for various reasons, nor does it consider those who leave a service and then come back (churn), which also needs to be acknowledged when discussing numbers.

All numbers are sourced from public filings, with the only estimate being for DIRECTV, which does not provide its own numbers but is estimated by Wall Street to have lost at least 1 million subscribers in 2024.

Disney announced that it will no longer provide ARPU numbers to Wall Street, following Netflix and Roku, which have also stopped reporting them. As this data continues to disappear from the market, here’s a breakdown of the latest ARPU numbers from services that continue to release them. For OTT services that had SVOD as their only business model, ARPU numbers provided valuable insights into their business. However, with nearly every OTT service incorporating advertising into its plans, as well as bundles offering wholesale pricing and some providing free streaming, a single ARPU number no longer provides as much insight into the business as it did previously.

Comparing ARPU data from previous years is challenging, as streaming services have increased pricing more frequently than before, and many have also expanded their services internationally with different pricing models and, in some cases, bundles offering promotional pricing. Some are unaware that streaming services receive lower monthly payments for wholesale subscribers. Disney, for instance, includes this language in their financials, saying, “Wholesale arrangements have a lower average monthly revenue per paid subscriber than subscribers that we acquire directly or through third-party platforms.”

Additionally, no OTT service details the percentage of users who have an ad-supported or ad-free plan, and only Paramount breaks out its share of DTC revenue that comes from advertising versus subscription fees. We also don’t know how many sign up for a service during special, highly discounted pricing offers or the percentage of consumers who buy the service via a vMVPD or aggregator, such as Amazon Channels. All of these factors significantly impact ARPU numbers, but we don’t know to what degree or for what percentage of users within a service. APRU is still an important metric, but it doesn’t provide a complete picture of how an OTT business is performing, which is why some companies have decided to eliminate releasing ARPU and subscriber numbers to Wall Street. All dates below are calendar quarters.

• Disney+: US and Canada ARPU, $8.09, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• Disney+: International ARPU, $7.67, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• Hulu: SVOD Only ARPU, $12.40, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• Hulu: Live TV+ SVOD ARPU, $100.07, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• ESPN+: US ARPU, $6.36, Subscription plus ads (Q1 2025)
• fuboTV: North American ARPU, $85.37, Subscription plus ads (Q1 2025)
• fuboTV: Rest Of World ARPU, $7.76, Subscription plus ads (Q1 2025)
• Paramount+: Global ARPU, $7.80, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• WBD: Global D2C ARPU, $7.14, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• WBD: Domestic D2C ARPU, $11.16, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• WBD: International D2C ARPU, $3.85, Subscription plus advertising (Q2 2025)
• Peacock: US ARPU, $10.02, Subscription plus ads (Q2 2025)
• Starz: US ARPU, $5.91, Subscription only, no ads (Q2 2025)
• Roku: Global ARPU, $3.45, [$41.49 trailing 12 months], Ads only (Q4 2024)
• Netflix: US and Canada ARPU, $17.26, Subscription plus ads (Q4 2024)
• Netflix: EMEA ARPU, $11.11, Subscription plus ads (Q4 2024)
• Netflix: LATAM ARPU, $8.00, Subscription plus ads (Q4 2024)
• Netflix: APAC ARPU, $7.34, Subscription plus ads (Q4 2024)
• Vizio: Global ARPU, $3.09, [$37.17, trailing 12 months], Ads only (Q3 2024)

Older, last reported APRU figures:

• iQiyi: China ARPU, $2.00, (Q4 2022)
• LionsgatePlay: India ARPU, $0.50, Advertising (Q4 2022)
• Pluto TV: Global ARPU, $1.64, Domestic ARPU, $2.54, Advertising (Q4 2021)
• Eros Now: India ARPU, Premium subscriber “in the range of $1.20 to $1.30”, Subscription (Q4 2022)

For all the price increases in OTT services over the past 12 months, many have seen YoY ARPU remain flat, or go down, due to wholesale pricing deals and, as Disney said during Q2 earnings, “lower advertising revenue.” No ARPU data has been released for AMC+, Acorn TV, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, CuriosityStream, DAZN, NFL+, Sling TV, Tubi, YouTube TV, and numerous other services

While a private company, my thanks to Gilles Domartini, CEO and Founder of Cleeng, for allowing me to disclose details about the company’s revenue. Cleeng has been in the market for fourteen years, having raised a total of €10 million and ended 2024 with €20 million in revenue, with a 7% EBITDA margin, up from €5 million in revenue in 2021. The company counts 40 customers across four continents, targeting those with a monthly budget of at least €4,000. The company ended 2024 with 140 employees and reported that 65% of its revenue comes from the US market. These are great numbers for Cleeng, as they demonstrate growth and profitability without requiring a significant investment of capital.

During the call, I also had the opportunity to see Cleeng’s recently announced Pro platform, which enables content owners to launch a subscription management platform free of charge for up to 10,000 subscribers. You can check out more details on that platform here.

I’ve recently spoken with and presented to more than two dozen last-mile providers, and here’s a list of live streaming events and software downloads they are closely monitoring from a capacity planning standpoint. We’ve recently gotten viewership stats from live events across YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix, so it’s been interesting for me to hear from ISPs and streamers on how they are using recent telemetry data for capacity planning. If you think I missed a potential big traffic event from the list (at least 10M+ AMA), please add it to the comments section.

• YouTube NFL Exclusive, (Sept 5, 19.7M AMA)
• Amazon Prime Video TNF Kickoff, (Sept 11, 17.7M AMA)
• Netflix Canelo vs. Crawford boxing event (Sept 13, 36.6M AMA)
• Battlefield 6 launch (Oct 10)
• Fortnite season, Chapter 6 Season 5 (Nov 1)
• Call of Duty Black Ops 7 launch (Nov 14)
• Netflix Jake Paul vs. Gervonta Davis boxing event (Nov 14)
• ESPN’s WWE premium live events (PLEs), the first one was Sept. 20 (4x per year)
• Netflix’s two NFL games on Christmas (Dec 25)
• YouTube NFL Sunday Ticket (all games until January, final date TBD)
• Amazon Prime Video TNF (all games until Dec. 27)
• NBA Season Long: Monday (Peacock), Tuesday (NBC/Peacock), Wednesday (ESPN), Thursday and Friday (Prime Video), Saturday (ABC/ESPN/Prime Video), Sunday (ABC/ESPN/Prime Video)
• NHL migrating to DAZN for 2025-2026 season (NHL TV no longer doing distribution, so traffic will look different now coming from DAZN)
• Amazon Prime Video NFL Wild Card playoff game (Jan 10 or 11)
• UFC on Paramount+ (2026, 46 events in the year, 13 are major)

One thing to note when comparing live events to previous years is the increasing number of large-scale live events that are now global. Some streamers have the rights to distribute events worldwide, as seen with Netflix’s NFL games on Christmas and YouTube’s coverage of the NFL game from Brazil.

We’ve seen inaccurate statements from some vendors recently regarding CDN services. Achieving a “50% bitrate reduction” doesn’t mean you can automatically “reduce CDN costs by up to 50%.” Beamr and other vendors promote this idea in press releases, such as the one Beamr issued for a demo at IBC, but it’s clear that many vendors don’t understand how CDN contracts work and how the services are purchased. I see this time and again with vendors, with another saying they can deliver video at a “fraction of the cost of traditional CDN,” or at a “lower cost,” but they never talk numbers.

Orange did a blog post about their CDN services in the lead up to IBC, saying that “4K and 8K are becoming the standard,” which is false. Almost no content is available in 4K, and no one is producing 8K content, let alone trying to stream it. The narrative that traffic across CDNs is going to “exponentially grow,” due to use cases involving 4K, 8K, VR or all live broadcast viewership moving from pay TV to streaming, isn’t true. That’s a fact, not my opinion.

I’m all for new ideas in the industry, but an idea alone is not enough. No vendor should start their pitch by making statements of how the current situation doesn’t work well and is broken. Delivering video over the internet today works very well at scale and continues to improve. Too many vendors say they can do better by building the “next generation” of something, at a lower price, with better performance, without any details to back that up, like we’ve seen from Blockcast, which suggests caches should be placed in consumers’ homes. They also say on their website that their solution is needed to help prevent streams of the World Cup Final from “vanishing,” whatever that means.

I see vendors using words to describe the “strength” and “quality” of their networks, with almost none of the vendors detailing capacity, regions deployed, or delivery services supported. Orange says their “footprint is worldwide,” but their delivery map shows coverage in two areas, Europe and Africa. Also, images on their CDN page are broken, above a heading that says their CDN is “reliable.” The entire capacity of Orange’s CDN solution could have handled only 5-7% of the total Tbps of capacity of the last Super Bowl. Quality, reach and capacity must all be discussed together, not independently.

Over the years, the market for delivery services and technology has been littered with vendors who all promised to do it better, at a lower cost, but are now gone. When vendors start making statements of how the current situation doesn’t work well, is broken, and they can do better by building the “next generation” of something, at a lower price, with better performance, without any details to back that up, that’s not good for the industry or for vendors.

The OpenMOQ Software Consortium has launched as a new effort among vendors and content owners, focused on advancing MOQ-based technology through open-source software. The consortium is tasked with developing high-performance software that will enable the next generation of media contribution, distribution, and playback. OpenMOQ is a collaborative effort to accelerate development, enhance interoperability and share cost between vendors, distributors and in some cases, even competitors. In this interview, Will Law from Akamai and Tomas Kvasnicka from CDN77 discuss the formation of OpenMOQ and its goals.

Vimeo has agreed to be acquired by Bending Spoons in an all-cash transaction that values Vimeo at approximately $1.38 billion, equating to $7.85 per share for Vimeo shareholders. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025. At Vimeo’s IPO in 2021, the company’s market cap was approximately $17.8 billion. A year later, Vimeos’ market cap fell under $2 billion and never got back above that number. More to come as more details emerge.

With any acquisition, one could argue that a company paid too much, and much of that is up to personal opinion. Looking at the numbers, Vimeo’s trailing-twelve-month revenue as of June 30 was $415, and they projected double-digit growth by the end of the year. Based on that, Vimeo is paying 3x projected 2025 revenue. However, at the end of Q2, Vimeo had $303 million in cash, so the multiple is more around 2.2x projected 2025 revenue.

I see some comparing Brightcove’s business, which Bending Spoons acquired, to Vimeo, but the companies are very different. At the end of Q3 2024, Brightcove had 1,923 premium customers, paying an average of $8,450 monthly. Outside of premium customers, Brightcove had 469 “starter” customers, paying $350 monthly. For comparison, at the end of Q2 2025, Vimeo’s self-serve plan had 1.5 million customers with an ARPU of $16.16 a month. Their “enterprise” customer count was 4,000 with an ARPU of $2,058 per month. The companies have a different set of customers. In the first 6 months of this year, Vimeo spent $60.9 million in R&D and $63 million in Sales and marketing expenses. General and admin expenses were another $37 million, along with over $14 million in stock-based compensation expenses. There are numerous cost savings that Bending Spoons will take advantage of to lower Vimeo’s costs, also at the expense of employee headcount, which is a business necessity as part of this deal.

A few weeks before the deal was announced, Vimeo laid off 10% of its workforce, which means Vimeo has now laid off 26% of its employees in the past three years, across two different CEOs. Like all vendors, Vimeo has been working hard to improve its balance sheet and net loss, and unfortunately, reducing headcount has been part of that process. In 2022, Vimeo’s net loss for the year was approximately $79.6 million. In 2023, their net loss decreased to $22 million, and in 2024, they reported a positive net income of $27 million. Their balance sheet continues to improve, but at the expense of jobs. Before the deal was announced, Vimeo’s stock was down 22% over the past year and 92% since its IPO.