Cablevision adds video subs, strikes Newsday deal

While some cable TV companies are taking an obvious hit from telco IPTV competition (see Comcast), others may not be seeing much of an impact. Cablevision Systems last week said it added 41,000 digital-video subscribers and 2,000 basic-video customers to its current 3.1 million video subscribers during the first quarter of this year, adding that it has seen little impact from Verizon Communications' FiOS service. The company also has moved aggressively into Verizon's traditional segments with its Optimum Lightpath data and voice services. In addition, the company said it will spend more than $300 million on rolling out Wi-Fi technology in the New York metro area and on Long Island over the next two years.

This week, Cablevision made another intriguing, though somewhat puzzling move, saying it will pay $650 million to acquire most of suburban newspaper Newsday. Arguably, Newsday could help Cablevision competitively by giving it more promotional heft for its offerings against whatever marketing blitz competitor Verizon may muster. It could also create cross-selling opportunities for advertisers that might be thinking of moving more money over to IPTV platforms. Still, newspapers as medium are weakening by the hour, so the benefits could be short-term at best.

For more:
- See this story [1] about earnings and another [2] about the Newsday deal at The Wall Street Journal  
- and Cablevision's quarterly results [3] 

Related articles:  
- Cablevision's Newsday deal seems unlikely to start a trend. Cablevision report [4] 
- Cablevision to rollout WiFi network. Cablevision WiFi report [5]