AT&T's DirecTV Leads Another Quarter of Heavy Cord-Cutting. Here's How Bad Things Are.

During the fourth quarter, the six biggest cable television services (which account for more than 90% of the U.S. cable industry) collectively lost nearly 1.2 million customers. It comes as no surprise that AT&T (NYSE: T) led the charge, losing 616,000 "premium TV" customers (mostly DirecTV subscribers). The company has discontinued lower-priced plans and raised the price of remaining ones in recent months, seemingly unconcerned about preserving the satellite cable company's value in front of a frequently rumored sale of the service.