TV cord cutters and cord nevers are appearing as a drag on service providers’ quarterly numbers as 4Q tallies for 2015 hit the street. However, high-speed data accumulations are helping to keep things generally on the sunnier side of the spreadsheet. And one service provider even got to highlight drops in the ever-dreaded truck rolls stats.
Mediacom reported more than 10,000 new high-speed data customers for the quarter but final numbers have it shedding around 2,000 video subscribers. Phone subscriptions pushed up approximately 6,000 to reach near 239,000 at the end of December.
Cablevision also lost TV subscribers in the final quarter of 2015, but the cable operator was quick to point out the big picture in which 2015 marked the “first year of organic growth in total customer relationships since 2008.” In particular, Cablevision underlined that it added 49,000 high-speed data customers in 2015.
Technology efficiencies also were a bright spot for Cablevision. It boasted 30 percent reduction in trouble call truck rolls compared to the prior year’s period.
Frontier Communications added broadband subscribers Q4 and also came up with higher totals in that category for its 2015 totals, but that growth didn’t cover losses in video and business subscribers. Overall customer numbers were slightly down for the year.
Dan McCarthy, Frontier’s president/CEO, looks toward the positive in a statement in which he says: “We achieved another year of very robust broadband growth, representing our third consecutive year of broadband additions in excess of 100,000. We embarked upon an enhancement of our capabilities, including the improvement of our broadband offerings in rural markets through the FCC’s Connect America Fund I and II, the increase of speeds in other markets through our own initiative, as well as the rollout of video capabilities to new markets.”
The company anticipates it will begin operating its formerly Verizon markets in California, Texas and Florida markets around April 1 of this year.