Residential Security Grew 9% in 2020, Comcast Subs Fell: SA

The residential interactive security market grew 9.3% in 2020 to 15.6 million subscribers despite installers’ limited access to homes during the pandemic, reported Strategy Analytics Tuesday. ADT (3.2 million) and Vivint (1.7 million) led, followed by Comcast, which declined 7.5% to under 1.3 million subs “due to attrition caused by competitive pressures,” SA said. Comcast didn't comment. Lockdowns “severely limited installer access to homes," but ADT’s and Vivint’s vast field service teams helped them "not just recover but achieve record high interactive security subscriber totals,” said SA analyst Jack Narcotta. Self-installed systems from Frontpoint, Brinks and SimpliSafe continued their momentum, he said. The U.S. interactive security market is driven by smaller regional and local providers, said the researcher. More than 10,000 dealers install Alarm.com’s platform, which had more than 7.6 million subs, up from 6.8 million in 2019. The competitive landscape in residential security is “in flux with Amazon and Google partnering with security providers to penetrate the market,” said analyst Bill Ablondi. ADT is installing Nest devices and will transition from Alarm.com to a new platform developed in collaboration with Google by 2023, he noted, while Amazon’s Alexa-powered Guard Plus is being bundled with security offerings from Abode, Resideo, Scout Alarm and Wyze.