Verizon announced 1Q09 results and cited 299K net new FiOS TV adds, bringing their total to 2.2 million. By our estimate, that places Verizon as the seventh largest cable company, behind Brighthouse Networks. Verizon is now ahead of cable MSOs like Suddenlink and Mediacom. If Verizon continues their current pace of growth, they very well could take over the sixth spot held by Brighthouse by sometime in 2010. Verizon’s penetration of FiOS TV now stands at 22.9%, passing 9.7 million homes.
AT&T has also cracked the top ten of largest cable MSOs, with their total U-Verse TV count as of the end of 1Q09 at 1.3 million. Based on basic cable sub counts, that places AT&T just behind Mediacom and ahead of Insight Communications.
Comcast has famously touted its prowess with local residential phone service, recently proclaiming themselves as the third largest phone company in the U.S., behind only AT&T and Verizon. Telcos will have a hard time matching that feat with video since telephone access lines are declining significantly for traditional telcos while Comcast adds voice customers. On the video side, cable companies still continue to add video customers along with their telco competitors, but not nearly at the same percentage of net new adds.
