Broadband Penetration Passes Pay-TV Penetration, Pivotal Research Analyst Says

U.S. broadband penetration (at 82 percent) passed pay-TV penetration (81 percent) in Q2, Pivotal Research's Jeff Wlodarczak wrote investors Tuesday. While the rate of growth among new data subscribers dropped year over year in the quarter, to 140,000 adds, cable took all the share of those net new subscribers despite aggressive AT&T promotional activity, the analyst said. Cable's ramping up of its speeds to 1 GB and faster, so telcos aren't likely to see positive net fixed data subscriber growth, he said, saying cable has "plenty of room" for taking some of the roughly 22 million DSL-based telco data subscribers. Pay-TV lost an estimated 1 million subs in Q2, with that to accelerate in Q3, Wlodarczak said. Q2 was the fourth straight quarter of accelerating year-over-year declines, and pay-TV penetration likely will be down to near 80 percent, he said.