Cable Continues To Score Broadband Gains; Wireline Telcos Suffer Loss in Q3

Large cable companies added 790,000 broadband subscribers and wireline telcos lost 140,000 in Q3, Leichtman Research Group said Tuesday in a release. The cable gain was 34 percent higher than in Q3 2014, while the telco loss was a reversal from a 110,000-subscriber gain in the year-ago quarter, said LRG. It said cable companies added 2.3 million subscribers in 2015, while telcos lost 130,000. Cable now has almost 54.3 million subscribers, compared with the telcos’ 35.2 million, a split of 60.6 percent and 39.4 percent of the 89.5 million total, the research firm said. The net gain of 645,000 landline broadband subscribers by the 17 largest cable and telco providers was higher than the 360,000 added in Q2 (see 1508180028), said LRG, which cited the companies' and its own research. Comcast led cable in Q3 with a 320,000 subscriber gain, followed by Time Warner Cable with 246,000 adds, Charter Communications with 147,000, Suddenlink with 21,600, Mediacom with 16,000 and Cablevision with 3,000, while WideOpenWest lost 800 and Cable One lost 171, said LRG. The group estimated Bright House Networks and Cox Communications added 35,000 subscribers between them. On the telco side, Frontier Communications gained 27,000 subscribers, Cincinnati Bell gained 6,200 and Verizon gained 2,000, while AT&T lost 129,000, CenturyLink lost 37,000, Windstream lost 11,200 and FairPoint lost 1,338, LRG said. AT&T and Verizon added a combined 305,000 fiber-based subscribers, but lost a combined 432,000 copper-based DSL subscribers, it said. Among the largest landline providers, Comcast now has 22.87 million broadband subscribers, followed by AT&T's 15.83 million, TWC's 13.02 million, Verizon's 9.22 million, CenturyLink's 6.07 million, Charter's 5.44 million Cablevision's 2.78 million and Frontier's 2.42 million, while BHN and Cox have an estimated 6.68 million between them, the group said. Charter is buying BHN and TWC.