Cable MSOs were mostly up and the top telcos all were down in high-speed Internet subscriptions during the second quarter 2017. In all, the top 14 providers – companies that serve about 95 percent of the market – netted almost 230,000 new U.S. broadband subscribers, according to an assessment by the Leichtman Research Group.
“Cable companies added about 3.1 million broadband subscribers over the past year, while Telcos had net losses of about 550,000 broadband subscribers,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, in a press release. “At the end of 2Q 2017, cable had a 64% market share vs. 36% for Telcos. The broadband market share for cable is now at the highest level it has been since the first quarter of 2004.”
U.S. Broadband Subscribers
The cable industry still dominates, with 59.9 million broadband subscribers compared to the telcos’ 34.2 million. Key findings of the research:
- Overall, broadband additions in 2Q 2017 were 107% of those in 2Q 2016
- The top cable companies added about 460,000 subscribers in 2Q 2017 — 84% of the net additions for the top cable companies in 2Q 2016
- The top telephone companies lost about 230,000 subscribers in 2Q 2017 — compared to a loss of about 340,000 broadband subscribers in 2Q 2016
- Each of the top Telco providers had net broadband losses in 2Q 2017
- Over the past year, there were about 2,550,000 net broadband adds — compared to about 3,000,000 the prior year
The biggest winner was Charter, which added 267,000 subscribers during the quarter. Three other cable companies added subscribers: Comcast (175,000 additions), Mediacom (6,000 additions) and Altice (2,000 additions). All seven phone companies mentioned were down, led by Frontier’s loss of 101,000 subscribers.
Image courtesy of flickr user Sean MacEntee.
