Cable ISPs Dominating in Net New Broadband Subscriptions, Pivotal Analyst Says

Cable ISPs again accounted for all net new data subscribers in Q4, and telcos aren't likely to reverse losses soon given the cable trend of ramping up broadband speeds, Pivotal analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors Wednesday. He said cable has plenty of medium and long-term sub growth opportunities taking share from the roughly 22 million DSL-based telco data customers. The pay-TV industry likely lost 530,000 video subs in the quarter, which would be the sixth straight quarter of accelerating percentage year over year decreases in pay-TV subs, he said. He said direct broadcast satellite had particularly heavy video customer losses of 270,000 subscribers due to cable bundling of data and TV.