Altice and Cable One Say ACP's Ending Not Having Big Impact

Cable One and Altice say the end of the affordable connectivity program isn't having a big effect so far on subscriber numbers. The companies announced their Q2 results Thursday. Charter Communications last week said it took a notable subscriber hit from ACP, which ended in June. Also, last week, Comcast said it expects an ACP-related impact in Q3 (see 2407260006). WideOpenWest reports Q2 results Aug. 8. With Cable One ending Q2 with 963,000 residential internet primary service units, up from 960,100 in Q2 a year ago, it's the only publicly traded cable operator with positive year over year subscriber growth, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors. In a call with Wall Street last week as Altice announced Q2 results, CEO Dennis Mathew said ACP's demise spurred "nominal" increased churn. The company said it lost 51,000 broadband subs in Q2, in part due to competition as well as ACP. Altice ended Q2 with 4.1 million residential broadband PSUs, down more than 130,000 from the same quarter a year earlier. Cable One said that of its 48,000 ACP subscribers, 4,000 left in Q2. While 91% were retained at least through Q2, CEO Julie Laulis said future churn is possible. Moreover, she said the company faces "steadily increased" wireline competition. Asked about the possibility of a wireless offering, Laulis was noncommittal and said Cable One models a mobile virtual network operator partnership multiple times a year. Cable One CFO Todd Koetje said the company's network is 42% by fiber operators, but that the pace of overbuilding could start slowing due to the increased cost of capital. Altice ended the quarter with 385,000 mobile lines, up from 264,000 year over year. CFO Marc Sirota said mobile line additions in the quarter were more than double the pace of what they were Q2 a year ago, and he expects accelerated mobile growth in the second half of the year. Moffett wrote Altice "might actually be better positioned" than other cable operators in wireline/wireless convergence because it has a big opportunity to offload wireless traffic in its legacy Cablevision footprint in the East onto its own network.