The 17 largest U.S. cable and telephone companies added a net 3 million new high-speed Internet subscribers in 2014, according to the latest market data from LRG (Leichtman Research Group). Collectively, the cable and telco ISPs represent 94 percent of the U.S. market.
Broadband subscriber numbers among the top U.S. cable companies totaled 51.9 million as of year-end 2014. Adding in the 35.4 million U.S. telco broadband service providers brought the overall total of subscribers for cable and telco broadband providers in the US to over 87.3 million, LRG said.
“While about four of every five US households now get broadband at home, there were more broadband net additions in 2014 than in 2013. This was the first year-over-year increase in broadband net adds since 2006 over 2005,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. in a press release.
Broadband Subscriber Additions
Comcast added a net 1.277 million new broadband subscribers in 2014, bringing its total to 21.962 million. Time Warner added a net 657,000 to bring its broadband subscriber count to 12.253 million. Charter added a net 432,000 in 2014 to bring its total to 5.672 million. Cablevision was the only one of the top 17 U.S. cable companies to lose broadband subscribers on a net basis in 2014, with 20,000 subscribers leaving.
Other key takeaways included in LRG’s latest report include:
- The top cable companies netted 89% of the broadband additions in 2014 — compared to 82% of the broadband additions in 2013;
- The top cable companies added 2.65 million broadband subscribers in 2014 — 123% of the total net additions for the top cable companies in 2013;
- The top telephone companies added about 345,000 subscribers — 72% of the total net additions for the top telephone companies in 2013;
- AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS broadband subscribers now account for 53% of Telco broadband subscribers — up from 37% at the end of 2012;
- The top cable companies had 2.3 million more net additions than phone companies in 2014 — compared to 1.7 million more net adds in 2013.
